The Jaycee Park redesign is underway. This week marked a moment many Jaycee Park goers have been dreading. The tree removal began.
"When that first tree came down, it broke a lot of people's hearts," said Scott Kemp, who lives near Jaycee Park.
The controversial redesign has brought people to meetings and even protests in hopes of keeping their park the way it is.
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"So many of us have made so many efforts to let the city be aware of our feelings, prior to their approving this project, and their failure to listen to us, to even to acknowledge us," said Kemp.
Even though the trees are starting to come down Scott Kemp is trying one final push to save the park by filing a lawsuit.
"It's absolutely hypocritical, it's wrong, and it's potentially illegal," said Derrick Eihausen, Kemp's attorney.
Eihausen says they found two problems in their public records search.
"We cited that the city lacks two specific permits," said Eihausen. "First, they lack a burrowing out permit, and they also lack a special permit for the disturbance take of bald eagles."
I've reached out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife and they are working to get back to me on these claims, but it wasn't just the permitting that raised a brow for Eihausen.
"In 60 days time after they passed this at the August 21 meeting, they're already moving forward and I think that the swiftness of the procedure has caused them to overlook some things," said Eihausen. "The city undertaking a project of this nature and this magnitude, they should study it properly and what the lawsuit points out is they haven't."
Kemp says he's hoping this lawsuit will get an emergency stop order against the demolition.
"If we don't get one in the next several days. Unfortunately, it's basically over," said Kemp.
Fox 4 is working to find out more information and we will keep you up to date on our findings.
