Store Owner Suspects City Of Using Code Enforcement Rules To Take His Property, Squeeze Him Out Of Business

In Plantation, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• For the latest example of local government run amok, look no further than the small Farm Store owned by Nasir Ahmed on Peters Road in Plantation. It's a drive-through convenience store where people roll up to buy beer, cigarettes and milk.

• After nearly 15 years of ownership — after working hard, paying his taxes and paying off the mortgage — Ahmed might lose the store because of a city code-enforcement nightmare. What Ahmed says were minor violations have turned into a $156,700 fine and a foreclosure judgment.

• "I think the city wants this property," said Ahmed, 52, an immigrant from Bangladesh. "Ever since I paid off the mortgage, there's been problems."

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• If the city wants this property for a public purpose, eminent domain allows government to take it by paying the owners fair market value. But this seems like a squeeze play to force Ahmed off the land.

For more, see Plantation store owner could lose property in code-enforcement nightmare (City gets foreclosure order after fine surpasses $150,000).