ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A homeowner believes that Orange County stole his property.
The fight is over a piece of land adjacent to the road along South Rio Grande Avenue and Wakulla Way in Orange County.
About 5,800 vehicles travel along South Rio Grande Avenue off Wakulla Way every day.
The traffic is what prompted Perry Shaikh to put up a six-foot fence.
"For privacy and noise reduction, safety also," Shaikh told Channel 9's Daralene Jones.
The fence got the attention of Orange County Public Works. The county claims the space where the fence was put up is on county property. The record shows appears to show a title dedication wasn't signed until December of 2015.
“I would be willing to give them the land, but you can't steal it, this is the United States,” Shaikh said.
The county filed a lawsuit against Shaikh and said the county has continuously maintained and repaired the road and full width of the area since 2001.
If a municipality consistently maintains a road over four years, Florida law allows it to take over the easement.
The County has also continuously maintained and repaired the road and the full width of the area that comprises the subject property since before 2001.
The maintenance and repair by the county included among other things, mowing and applying herbicides to the grassy area within the subject property as shown in written maintenance and repair records maintained in the regular course of business by the County over many years, the lawsuit states.
“This is just not right, and I am not willing, (it’s) not about money,” Shaikh said.
The county said the land takeover happened long before he bought his house in 2014, but that doesn't explain why the permitting office issued the permit for the fence in the first place.
A spokesperson for the county told us in part: "The County did not steal the Shaikh's property. The fence blocks the visibility of drivers and pedestrians in the area including children and parents who use the sidewalk to walk to Palmetto Elementary School."