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Controversy Over Restaurant Pitting Neighbors Against Each Other

Posted: 6:03 pm EDT May 10, 2006

A little neighborhood restaurant is causing a big controversy. Neighbors are even threatening to file harassment lawsuits against each other.

The Orlando restaurant is called 903 Mills; that's its name and address. The parking lot has been converted into a cafe. Neighbors there and a handful of others are complaining. The noise and traffic is too much. Other neighbors say, though, the corner spot brings the community together.

"It's like the neighborhood Cheers. You walk in. Everyone knows your name," said neighbor Joe Savage.

Savage says everyone at 903 Mills knows his name. He says the corner restaurant brings character and charm to Delaney Park. But neighbor Ronald Walker, who lives caddy-corner to the grocery store turned café, says it attracts drinking, noise and traffic.

"Now he keeps people liquored up 16 hours a day, traffic piles up. They have live band music," Walker said.

Walker showed Eyewitness News a file documenting the complaints he and other neighbors have sent to the city of Orlando.

Neighbors for and against the restaurant and restaurant owners are set to duke it out before the city council. The neighbors are so divided, some are threatening to file harassment lawsuits against each other.

"We're being harassed, harassed, harassed," Walker said.

Eyewitness News spoke with one of the restaurant's owners about it.

"All people have to do is talk to us. Now we're embroiled in a big battle with the city along with them and everything else," said owner Jim Ellis.

The restaurant did change its hours to shut down earlier in the quiet neighborhood. The business is grandfathered into the residential neighborhood because it opened 80 years ago. It was a jam and jelly factory, then a bakery, a grocery store and now a restaurant.

It a welcome change for those who enjoy walking into a place where people know their name, but a source of contention for those who think the cheers and people spilling outside are just too disruptive.

Eyewitness News checked with Orlando police and, since November, there have been almost a dozen calls from neighbors complaining about noise and parking. The meeting with city hall is at the end of the month.

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