After Orange County commissioners approved a roadway that would lead to the demolition of 22 houses, a TV reporter asked homeowner Richard “Neil” Franklin how much his home was worth.
“Oh, I’d be lucky to get $90,000,” he said, referring to the 1,300-square-foot-home on Mistletoe Court in east Orange County that he and his wife, Ada, have lived in for 24 years.
The comment, made nine months ago, enraged many of his neighbors, who say the county has tried to low-ball them on home prices ever since. No one but Franklin’s family knew he had Alzheimer’s disease when he made the statement.
The Franklins eventually requested $150,000. They sold for $137,500.
But a handful of Mistletoe Court homeowners are holding out for more money. After studying home prices in comparable neighborhoods outside their area, they decided the county wasn’t offering enough. They hired Orlando attorney John Wettach Jr. to try to negotiate higher appraisals.
“I know they are angry with us,” Ada Franklin, 70, said. “They say we should have all stuck together and held out for a better price.”
The Franklins and about 20 other displaced homeowners must clear the way for the first phase of the east-west connector road that will run from Semoran Boulevard (State Road 436) to Dean Road, north of Colonial Drive (State Road 50) and south of University Boulevard.
The long-term $3.8 million project approved by commissioners last year eventually may extend as far east as Tanner Road, beyond the University of Central Florida.
Married for a half-century, the Franklins raised three grandchildren at their home The couple, among the few families on the block who sold their homes, now say they felt they got a bum deal. They sold only because of personal circumstances, they said.
“We love this house,” Ada Franklin said.
Richard Franklin, a 71-year-old retired phone company supervisor, said he is out more than $32,000 in the transaction. A comparable-sized house that he and Ada are purchasing in the Winter Park area will cost them $170,000, they said.
County officials have defended the offers, saying they are $15,000 to $25,000 above the homes’ appraised values. But Steve Matonis, a home appraiser in the Orlando area since 1978, said the county should have gone outside the targeted neighborhood to find comparable home prices. “The street becomes a blighted area after an announcement of a road project,” Matonis said. “The home prices drop. To be fair, you would have to go outside the area to compare prices.”
Commissioner Mary Johnson said comparing home prices within a mile radius is a standard county practice. She said she sympathizes with the homeowners, but said the population explosion in east Orange demands that more roads be built.
“Look what we’re going through with transportation,” Johnson said. “If we as leaders didn’t take a step to increase transportation, where would we be? We have to strike a balance.”
Carol Delzingaro doesn’t see it that way. She wants $20,000 more than the county’s offer of $150,000 for her five-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,448-square-foot home. The county’s offer would include all her attorney fees. For now, neither side is willing to budge. Delzingaro said the ordeal has created so much stress that she began to take antidepressants.
“I feel like I’m being held hostage in my own home,” she said.
Other holdouts envisioned they would live out their last days in the homes they must now relinquish. Jean Hart, 73, a widow, has lived in her house for 34 years. Rudolph and Corinne Gumkowski have lived in theirs for 30 years. Donald and Charlotte Corder have been residents of Mistletoe Court for 37 years. Charlotte Corder, 71, said she and her husband had just made $20,000 in home improvements when the road announcement was made.
“We never dreamed of this,” she said.
