JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A group of Brentwood residents held a news conference Friday morning in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Jacksonville, voicing their concerns about the medical examiner’s facility being constructed in their neighborhood.
The Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association, led by Lydia Bell, has long said the facility doesn’t belong in the Brentwood neighborhood. It’s being built near the KIPP V.O.I.C.E. Academy, a charter school, and is almost complete.
“You look at it being across the street from [the school], 3 feet from our homes, the psychological effect, the contamination,” Bell said.
The group is asking a federal court to approve an injunction to stop the operation of the new Medical Examiner’s Office.
They also filed a civil lawsuit against the city regarding the facility.
The group also alleges that the city didn’t tell the community that it intended to build the facility and that it violated city ordinances.
The group said that homes near these facilities typically lose property value due to stigma and environmental risks. The injunction seeks that the facility be repurposed into something that “benefits, rather than harms and irreparably harms the Brentwood community.”
“I don’t understand why that doesn’t bother you,” Dan Lipps, a concerned resident, said. “If this morgue were in your backyard, it would be your children getting asthma and living shorter lives, but it’s not. It’s right in our neighbors’ backyards, and that bothers me to my core.”
Back in April, residents protested at city hall, asking that the facility be turned into a pharmacy, an urgent care, or a tutoring center.
The city said the facility is expected to be completed by September and turned over to the Medical Examiner’s Office in November.
The protesting began in 2023, with the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association protesting against a building becoming a liquor store, just across the street from the school.
The community won that victory in 2024. The liquor store never opened. The city of Jacksonville purchased the building and changed it to a business center.
Read the full lawsuit below. The city declined to comment due to pending litigation.