Imagine moving from the city to a quiet neighborhood only to have hundreds of trucks pulling in and out every day in a nearby lot. That’s what happened to residents in the southwest part of a county in Florida when a depot effectively popped up with numerous trucks that were illegally stored. Fortunately after several months, inspectors are finally doing something about it.
Lot owners have been fined for thousands of dollars
Diego, a resident who lives near the lot in Redland, Florida, says that the makeshift truck depot has been a nuisance in the area.
“When they’re waiting to get in, they stop traffic,” he told CBS Miami. “They break down in the middle of the road, which blocks our entrance to the house. There’s actually less peace and quiet here than in the city.”
Diego previously reached out to the local news outlet in February, and it’s only now, six months later, that inspectors from the county have fined the owners of the lot.
Inspectors say that they missed a July 8 deadline to comply after they found that 48 semi-trucks were being stored on the property without county approval. The fines amount to more than $29,000, but that’s just the start if the trucks continue to be illegally stored on the lot after 30 days.
“They make these car lots because, in their view, it’s out in the middle of nowhere,” Diego explained. “When you bring cameras and report on it, it brings light to what’s happening out there.”
He hopes that the fines will continue to accrue until the property owners move the trucks to another location, which would be at least “a partial win” for the community.
The outlet went to the address of the property’s owner and a woman answered the door, but the owners have yet to respond.
