SUN VIDEO: Our Family Diner Legally Blocks in Neighbors’ Driveway

YORK – A neighbor dispute at a diner on Retsof Road is rapidly deteriorating into a lawsuit.

Neighbors say that the restaurant, which technically owns the end of the residence’s driveway, had no reason to install cement blocks on either side of the driveway.

“My biggest concern, being a type 1 diabetic, if in time I needed emergency personnel, I was told that they’d have to park out at the road, and have to accommodate, have to walk back and forth from the road to the house and would have to walk me out to the ambulance,” said Stephen Reeves. “I feel, being a diabetic for 18 years, that time is my biggest enemy when it comes to a situation like that.”

An owner of the restaurant, Denise Hahn, says that the neighbors dogs and kids with dirtbikes trespassed on their property so often that they blocked the property line, first with stakes and then with the cement blocks.

The Reeves say that among other things, this poses an undue safety risk because emergency vehicles can no longer access their house.

“If anything were to happen to the house, if the house were to catch fire, we were told they’d have to park out at the road and use their longest hoses to reach our house, which I just don’t feel is the way it technically should be handled,” said Stephen Reeves.

York’s Code Enforcement Office, Carl Peter, says that there is no minimum width of a driveway in Town Code, so any problems would have to be in the deeds of the two properties. He says that no code violations are at play in this case.

“We’ve been told over and over basically to accommodate to the neighbors,” said Stephen Reeves. “And that’s where we stand today, with absolutely nobody wanting to do anything about this matter.”

The Reeves say that they have retained counsel and feel that they have no choice but to file a lawsuit.

“We’ve remained quiet and dealt with it and now it’s reached a point where we definitely feel that something has to be done,” said Stephen Reeves.