'I Cannot Have A Building Built Where He Died': Emotional Resident Speaks Out At Hearing Over Future Of Surfside Collapse Site
SURFSIDE (CBSMiami) – New controversy Tuesday night in Surfside over the future of the site of the tragic building collapse. It's all about how the condo owners will be compensated and where a memorial can be built.
"I still have dreams with the rubble. I still see him in the rubble. It's ridiculous we have to fight for this," said one woman at Tuesday's hearing.
Fighting for a memorial for their loved ones, the emotional wounds are wide open and excruciatingly painful more than two months after the Surfside building collapse.
"I cannot have a building built where he died, where his cousins died, where all of them died," the woman added.
She lost her 26-year old husband in the flash of time it took for the Champlain Towers to crumble.
Now she and other survivors as well as victims' families are asking for a land swap so a memorial can be built in the footprint where Champlain Towers once stood.
In recent weeks, a judge overseeing the fate of the fallen towers said he'd consider a land-swap proposal to facilitate a memorial, but only if the town would agree to relocate its coveted community center to make way for a new luxury condo.
It's a proposal many residents are against despite the tragic circumstances.
The potential land swap would move the community center next to a memorial built on the collapse site
In exchange, the community center land would be sold to provide compensation to all those affected by the collapse.