Palm Grove Estate is a small residential area outside of Belize City, located at mile 4 and a half on the Northern Highway.
The residents who live there consider it private property, and so when a decision was made to build an apartment complex in the location, they opposed it. They've been trying to get the Belize City Council to see things their way by showing that it would be detrimental to the community, but they claim that Mayor Darrell Bradley isn't hearing them.
According to the Palm Grove Residents, Bradley has pressed forward for the developer to the put the apartment in the community without properly considering their concerns. After weeks of back and forth City Hall in trying to resolve the matter by the use of stop orders, which they say have been ignored, they called 7News out to the area to see the development first hand.
Stephen Heusner explained more about their struggle with City Hall:
Stephen Heusner, resident
"It started out that we found out that they were building this building and we notified the City Council and they said that they have absolutely no knowledge of this building and they check their records and there was nothing there. Anyway, they started building and we got the City Council and they came up and they issued a stop order. When they did their investigations, nothing has been approved by City Council, by the LBA, the CBA, there were no seals on the plans, so they were acting from day one illegally."
Daniel Ortiz
"Now, tell us about the opportunities that you've tried to make with the mayor and with other councilors from the council to discuss whether or not they can intervene on your behalf."
Stephen Heusner, resident
"We've had a very good relationship with the city engineer, the city administrator - they have been assisting us and making sure that when we first brought these issues to the forefront they exercise in their rights what the stop orders that they needed to do but at the end of the day the mayor stepped in and over rule them and then he just took over this whole operation and he just said that it's an economic development and he is staying by it and he could not care less more of less what the residents are saying here."
That interview was conducted an hour before the start of tonight's newscast, and due to time constraints, we'll explore the issue more in depth in tomorrow's news. We'll also attempt to get Mayor Bradley's version of events as to why he thinks the development should happen.
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