ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – News 6 asked what you would like to see us focus on in the 32825 ZIP code and you answered.
Many people have concerns about the now-abandoned Lake Downey Mobile Home Park.
We found there are potential plans in the works, but the timeline is still unclear.
It started with a message that came into our “Hits the Road” portal.
“The condition of the now abandoned Downey Park Mobile Home Park is an embarrassment to the 32825 community and to the county,” a News 6 viewer wrote.
All of the tenants were evicted from the Lake Downey Mobile Home Park last summer because the developer is trying to sell the property.
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An area that was once plagued with problems, is now a community eyesore, according to some.
Rodney Haynes lives In Dean Woods Place Apartments next door. He said for years his children were not allowed to play in the park just feet from their door, because of the mobile home park on the other side of the fence.
“The trailer park, it was really bad over there. A lot of drug activity, a lot of shootings,” Haynes said.
The park has been abandoned for months now, so Haynes said that activity has stopped, but he says what’s left behind is a nightmare too: a wasteland of falling down trailers, piles of trash and stacks of debris.
Angel Coleman is the Office Administrator for Faith United Methodist Church right across the street.
“It’s unsafe. It’s unsanitary. It’s 100% an eyesore,” Coleman said. “Just trash everywhere. It looks like a bomb, or a hurricane just went through there and put into a disaster state.”
It’s also right next door to Union Park Elementary School.
“What are we doing? Coleman said. “What is the county doing? What is the mayor doing? What are we doing?
News 6 found out the county has hit the owner of the property with more than $3 million in fines and now there is a proposal to build a new apartment complex.
County officials are reviewing land use and zoning change applications, which include plans to build 360 multi-family apartment units, according to a county spokesperson.
“It would have been nice for it to be cleaned up and be presentable and make it an environment for these people that were in there, but unfortunately that’s not where we are,” Coleman said.
There’s already improvement to Haynes.
“Now all the little kids meet right there at the park and have fun,” Haynes said.
The timeline is hard to nail down, according to a county spokesperson. It depends on the review process.
Then there would be a public hearing and a final vote from county commissioners, the spokesperson wrote in an email.
It is the property owner’s responsibility to pull the permit to demolish and remove the mobile homes. There are pending code violations that will go before the code enforcement board in March, the spokesperson said.
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