ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It took four years, but Orange County residents got a noisy illegal junkyard shut down.
The car crushing facility was in a residential area of Bithlo next to a community park.
Photos: Bithlo residents get noisy, illegal junkyard shut down
Channel 9’s Lori Brown first exposed the illegal operation a year-and-a-half ago.
Commissioner Ted Edward’s office said the junkyard operators played the system by appealing decisions over and over again until they had nowhere else to go.
“Some morning it was like an earthquake when they dropped the cars,” said resident Linda Butler.
Butler moves to her home in Bithlo in 2004 because it was quiet.
She couldn’t believe it six years later when trees behind her backyard were cut down, followed by the sounds of crushing cars.
“It was the crushing big booms and dropping the metal in the dumpsters,” Butler said.
Edwards’ office got involved and code enforcement started issuing fines of $500 a day.
But the owner of #1 Dan’s Auto Recycling didn’t stop.
“It got worse and worse and worse, and he got bigger and bigger and louder,” said Butler.
Ronald Cartas claimed he was exempt from zoning ruled because he was grandfathered in.
But Edwards’ office found that he has abandoned the land from 2008 to 2010, making his exemption void.
“We had aerial photographs showing there had been no activity for years, pictures with no cars there,” said Edwards.
But Cartas sued the city anyway and then appealed every decision.
“They really worked the system. By the end we caught them and shut them down,” Edwards said.
Butler said she and her neighbors are thankful.
“It’s four families. We all hung in there together until we got it accomplished,” Edwards said.
The junkyard racked up $300,000 in code enforcement fines.
If the junkyard doesn’t finish clearing the property voluntarily, the county will issue an injunction to force them to do so.
WFTV
