Condo owners battling billionaire's plan to put amusement rides on Cocoa Beach

Article and Video Courtesy of FOX 35 News

By Derrol Nail

Published July 20, 2017

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COCOA BEACH - He is the "King of Time Shares" in Orlando, but on the beach just 40 miles to the east, the billionaire owner of Westgate Resorts is being called a noisy neighbor who locals say wants to be even noisier.

    

David Siegel is asking the City of Cocoa Beach to approve the addition of three outdoor amusement rides between the parking lot and the beach at the Cocoa Beach Pier. But the owners of the condominium next door, the Ola Grande, have asked city leaders to reject the Pier's application to add the carnival-like addition.

"We're not talking about giant roller coasters," says Siegel. "We're just talking about you know small rides and something for the kids to do."

"Would you want the rides a 100-something-feet from your house where you are sleeping every night?" asks neighbor Terry Zittle.


The front door to his beachfront condominium opens right up to the Pier's property, and he's not happy about a Pier proposal which he says will add carnival style lights and noise.
  

"People screaming, you know, when you are on a ride you're screaming all the time. I don't know if I'm ready for this."

The president of Ola Grande Condominium Association sent a letter of opposition to the city, stating its owners -- mostly in their 60s and 70s -- believe noise, traffic, and crime, will all increase in their neighborhood if rides are built. Siegel says not so.

"It's definitely not going to be like Daytona Beach or Disney World," he says. "It's going to remain the same old Florida feeling that it currently has., with a little bit more to do."
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