JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Neighbors on Jacksonville’s Northside are suing the city over its handling of the construction of a medical examiner's office in their neighborhood.
The Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association is suing the city, accusing it of violating the neighborhood bill of rights, which is codified into law.
Plaintiffs said the city did not give neighbors notice about the morgue or time to have input.
"They didn't tell us anything. There was no planning hearing," Lydia Bell, president of the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association, said.
The neighbors said they learned about the construction of the morgue in Spring 2023, after the site had already been picked and the ground had already been broken.
They said they only found out about the morgue when they were fighting the opening of a liquor store in their neighborhood, which would have been right in front of the morgue.
Neighbors won the fight against the liquor store, which they also said were not properly notified about, as the city stepped in to buy the property.
Now, in a twist, some neighbors are suing the city over the morgue.
“They [the city] keep playing us for being stupid over and over and over again," Bell said.
In the 17-page lawsuit filed Thursday it said the morgue was first discussed by the city in 2016, under Mayor Lenny Curry's administration.
The lawsuit goes on to say several sites were discussed between 2018-2019, but not the current site in Brentwood.
The court documents don't detail when the city picked Brentwood, but neighbors say they found out when the ground breaking happened in the spring of 2023.
At the time of the groundbreaking ceremony, the city still needed to rezone the property in order to build the proposed facility, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said in late December 2023, the city's planning commission did not recommend approval of the rezoning exception, which would allow a bigger building to be built.
However, in March 2024, city council went against the planning commission's recommendation, and pushback from the community, and voted, 13-4, to approve the rezoning, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says the city spent almost $5 million in construction costs prior to getting zoning approvals.
“They're breaking every law on the book, and that is anarchy," Bell said.
“How are you going to bring the dead bodies in? Because there's one little, tiny street where you have buses, parents pick up the children, you have the community around the corner," she added.
Katrina Spencer is one of those neighbors who is suing the city.
“As you can see, this is the basketball [hoop] where our kids play," Spencer, who lives down the street from the medical examiner's office, said.
She said kids play just steps from the new morgue. A white wall outlines the boundary just feet from neighbor's backyards.
“I believe it's going to make our property value go down and no one will be willing to buy the houses around here," Spencer said.
Neighbors want accountability and to stop the morgue from coming, but if construction continues, they have ideas for what they'd like to see come.
“We can have a community center in there to help the community also, that building does not need to be a morgue," Spencer said.
The plaintiffs are also seeking damages saying the morgue will harm their property values.
First Coast News reached out to the city and mayor's office but has not heard back at this time.