BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — Florida Power and Light's (FP&L) controversial gas pipeline is not coming to Central Florida's east coast, but that's news to some homeowners in Brevard County.
They recently received warnings that their homes could be taken by eminent domain for the project, but those warnings did not come from FP&L. The letters came from a law firm.
Denisse Overbee Ford can't think of many other places where she'd have enough room for her pet pig and chickens, but a letter had her thinking FP&L wanted her land for a natural gas pipeline.
"I was freaking out. I was like, ‘Oh my God, they're going to take my property, where am I going to go? When is this going to happen?'" Ford said.
The warning came from a law firm out of Tampa that said her home in Cocoa was on a list of properties that could be taken through eminent domain.
FP&L said it put the project on hold in January.
A map shows the proposed pipeline would've missed the homes on Burgess Avenue.
If FP&L ever builds a pipeline, it says the majority of it will go under power lines on land it already owns.
That news fired up some neighbors who got the alarming letter.
"It upset me a lot because I don't know what this is all about," Ford said.
The Kennedy Law Group couldn't say how many of the letters it sent out, but the attorney who wrote it says he was not trying to put anyone on edge.
A statement from the law firm stated, "We certainly did not mean to upset anybody. That's not our intent. It's simply to inform and if anybody has any questions and would like to speak directly to me, I'd be happy to do that,"
The law firm says it got the list of homeowners it contacted from public records.
FP&L said it suspended plans for the pipeline, because new estimates found it won't need additional natural gas supplies until 2016.