ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — People living along a stretch of Lillian Highway say they want something done about a dilapidated building nearby.
They say the old “Vallarta’s” Mexican Restaurant is falling apart and attracting vagrants, and they want it torn down.
But Escambia County’s code enforcement team says that’s unlikely at this point.
“It’s just really a dump unfortunately,” neighbor Mike Schumacher said.
Escambia County residents say the restaurant has been abandoned for 12 years. Neighbors say the property has become nothing short of an eyesore.
“And it brings down to property values as well,” Schumacher said. “It’s that it doesn’t look good for the community especially, you know, if you’re in a market to buy a home in the neighborhood.”
Schumacher says the building is falling apart, with rotting wood, stray construction nails, broken glass, and most recently — a homeless issue.
“That leads inside, and this window is against code,” said Schumacher. “It’s supposed to be closed in. You can’t have an open window.”
“The ceiling is falling down,” he said. “The nails and everything exposed. So when we get storms, what happened last time is we had a bad storm and this collapsed.”
The restaurant sits right near the Florida-Alabama border, making it one of the first properties visitors see after they cross over the Lillian Bridge.
Schumacher says he and his neighbors want the building demolished. Tim Day, natural resources deputy director for Escambia County, says that’s not an option right now.
“And in talking with the owners today, they’re still working with some engineers to finalize some structural engineering that they need to do to get the permits to be able to hopefully start renovating the site in hopefully 60 to 90 days,” Day said.
Day says the people who own the building plan to revamp the property by expanding the parking lot and turning the site into a “Pedro’s” Mexican restaurant. But he says they haven’t made much progress so far.
“What we’re doing now is we’re going to go ahead and re-notice them just because there seems to be ongoing issues,” said Day. “And it’s kind of dragging out just a little bit. But as long as the ownership is able to keep moving forward in a predictable fashion, I wouldn’t expect those code enforcement proceedings to continue to elevate.”
Whether the property owners make any progress on revamping the site remains to be seen.
Dining and Cooking