JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A pile of waste was cleaned up at a Moncrief apartment complex riddled with safety issues after neighbors told the News4Jax I-TEAM the dumpster had been missing for weeks.
A pile of garbage could be seen Tuesday in the middle of the Majestic Plaza apartment complex, near a playground. But early Wednesday morning, the City of Jacksonville Solid Waste Division cleaned up the garbage, according to code enforcement.
I-TEAM: Trash piling up at apartment complex cited with violations
Bryan Mosier, the operations director for the city's neighborhoods department, said the city cleaned up the mess “because of the amount of waste and debris and the potential for sanitary issues.”
The company Waste Pro was seen Wednesday afternoon while dropping off a dumpster at the complex. A second dumpster was also placed nearby.
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This comes after the I-TEAM reported on multiple code enforcement and fire code violations cited at the property.
"This still would have been out if the news hadn't came," Felicia Nelson, who lives at Majestic Plaza, said Wednesday.
It's a small victory.
The I-TEAM uncovered there are at still least 34 open and active code enforcement investigations into Majestic Plaza. City inspectors cited the property in July for a cooking stove and a heating appliance being “in poor or unsafe working condition." In February, the property was cited for a sagging ceiling and one unit being “infested with rats.”
"There’s rat holes going into the building. That’s my building," Nelson said. "Very frustrating. We have kids. There’s a lot of crime. We don’t have security. We don’t have staff at the rent office. We don’t even know who to pay our money to."
According to Mosier, two of the units were condemned for being unsafe structures and 20 of the investigations involve standards housing code issues. The I-TEAM asked Mosier how Majestic Plaza compared to other cases he's seen in apartment complexes.
"Based on what we’ve seen, it’s not the worst -- certainly not the best -- but not the worst," Mosier said. "Code enforcement sees a lot of things."
Code enforcement said if the violations are not dealt with, the next step is Magistrate Court, where the property owner could face several fines.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the latest property owner, Rockwell One Properties LLC, had not returned calls or emails sent Tuesday. There was no answer at the Majestic Plaza main office.
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