ORANGE CITY, Fla. — It’s the time of the year when residents are putting up Christmas decorations, but one homeowner put up a vulgar sign, sparking a feud between neighbors.
James Lyster has lived in his Orange City home near Landsdown Avenue home for 14 years.
He used to get along with his neighbors, until he said the Helbergs started spreading the yard with large equipment, junk and disabled cars.
Photos: Man says neighbor posting vulgar signs
“All the junk that was over there, junk cars, they were running a scrap yard, chopping up cars,” said Lyster.
He complained to code enforcement officials and took pictures to prove the violations.
That’s when the Helbergs put up a large sign with a message to Lyster.
“(It said) that I don’t pay their mortgage or taxes, and that if I need to say something, for me to come over there,” he said.
The sign was too big to be within code, but the curse words on it were allowed.
“I couldn’t believe they were allowed to write that kind of language on it,” said Lyster.
The Helbergs took down that sign, and then put a sign up with an offensive message on it, but it did not meet code enforcement's size criteria.
Code enforcement officials said they’ve issued three notices to Lyster and six to the Helbergs, and both came into compliance before being cited.
The only problem with the sign is that it exceeded square-foot standards.
Although code enforcement officers asked the Helbergs to reconsider displaying the sign, the Helbergs didn’t take it down until Monday.
The city has a free expression sign ordinance, allowing people to put up whatever they want as long as it is no bigger than 3 feet high and 5 feet long and is hanging.
WFTV
