Hampton, Va. - The playground in the West View Lakes neighborhood in Hampton has been closed all year and will remain closed for another month.
According to the West View Lakes Homeowners Association, they did not have the proper permits to have a park. The association says they were never aware they had to have any kind of permit and say the contractor who built the park said they would acquire the permits for the park.
The park has not had a proper permit in more than 15 years. The city never knew about the permit situation until a year ago.
Last year the Home Owners Association installed a basketball court at the park. Neighbors to the park began complaining to the city about the noise and 'activities' from some of the older kids, taking place at the basketball court. Neighbors NewsChannel 3 spoke to say they stopped letting their kids go to the park because of those older-teenage children.
When the city heard about the complaints, they began looking deeper into the park and found it had no permits. The park has since been taped off and fenced in.
The Homeowners Association has applied for the proper permits. The city's planning commission met last week and approved the permit. They will recommend that the city council also accept the permit. The city council will hear the issue in their July meeting.
