Group fed up with neighbor’s constant explosions fight for ‘Right to Peace’ ordinance
A group of residents in Orange County was so fed up with booms from fireworks
By Dacia Johnson, Luana Munoz
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ORANGE COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — A group of residents in Orange County was so fed up with booms from fireworks, they fought for the right to peace.
Literally.
This week, the Orange County Commission passed the Right to Peace ordinance.
It all happened in Waterfront Estates. a mostly peaceful community, where residents say one neighbor would set off mortar blasts multiple times a day.
“I thought a plane was crashing into our house,” said Jill Shargaa about April 27. “It was just never ever as loud as that one. These other ones, they kind of vary, but they’re all still huge.”
Shargaa lives on Overlake Avenue, a few doors down from where the mortar blasts have been going nearly every day for the last year.
She said the blasts were so bad, she began to document them.
“It could be one, two, three, four, one enormous one. Then silence for a day or two.”
Her efforts paid off.
After several failed attempts to get her neighbor to stop, the entire community went to Orange County.
Commissioner Mayra Uribe took a trip to the neighborhood to witness it first-hand.
“The worst thing that happened to me that I recognized most outside of it being very scary, you kind of think is it a gunshot, what is going on, were the animals,” Uribe said. “You could hear the dogs howling after the mortars would go off in the community.”
Commissioners passed the ordinance on Tuesday.
It requires a $100 county permit for “public display of fireworks or pyrotechnics” and allowed an investigating sheriff’s deputy to issue a cease-and-desist order if someone doesn’t comply.
“It’s not like me calling and saying ‘my neighbor is throwing off mortars.’ That’s not quite how it works,” Uribe said. “I have to show proof that this activity is happening or where deputies can come and hear it themselves.”
A written warning comes first, then escalating fees of $200, $400 and $500 plus a mandatory court appearance if they fail to comply.
“Right now, we are just thrilled we’ve gotten this far in relatively a short time since September last year,” Shargaa said.
Residents in the county will still be allowed to set off fireworks on the Fourth of July and other covered holidays, but since the ordinance was passed, residents say things have been fairly quiet and hope it will stay that way.
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