Decaying neighborhood wall raises concerns for residents; calling on City of Orlando for help
Residents at an Orlando property say decaying cement walls alongside it are creating more than just a barrier and they don’t know who is responsible for them.
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Bruce Welch said his mother owns the home off Royal Ivey Gardens Court.
The City of Orlando told Channel 9 that the walls are owned by a voluntary neighborhood association that may not exist anymore.
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Welch and his family moved to the Orlando home in 1969.
30 years later, he told us someone had walls put up alongside his family’s property.
“I don’t think we deserve this,” Welch said. “We didn’t ask for this wall to be put here.”
Welch said they’ve gone unkept since.
This gateway to the neighborhood now stands with fading paint and a cracked foundation.
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One end even leans after Welch said a car crashed into it.
He says the walls not only have a bad look, but he’s also afraid someone could get hurt.
“The safety concern to me would be, it would be a little while over time, but that wall falling on someone’s dog,” Welch said. “They keep letting it sit like that, it’s going to fall, and if somebody is there it’s going to hurt them.”
Tuesday, Channel 9 learned the City of Orlando provided funding in 1999 to the Royal Ivey Gardens Neighborhood Association for the walls.
A city representative told us that the neighborhood association was voluntary but was responsible for the maintenance of those walls for their lifetime.
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The representative went on to say, since this agreement was made more than 20 years ago, the association may have gone away or is inactive.
The city’s Neighborhood Relation Team said it will contact Welch to address his concerns.
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