Cape Coral Halloween display has 48 hours to get up to code or be shut down

UPDATE

As of around 4:20 p.m. Friday, code enforcement officers told the Klapperts they had 48 hours to get their display up to code or be shut down.

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A fun, haunted house? Or a haunted hazard?

That’s the question after code enforcement threatened to shut down Spooky Alley in Cape Coral.

Skeletons and Jack-O-Lanterns come alive each year as a thousand people walk through this trick-or-treater’s dream—or spooky nightmare.

But some walls that separate one scary room from another that are the issue. If they come down like the city says they must, that could mean no Halloween Haunt next Thursday night.

Spooky Alley is described as a fright trail for all ages.

“Spooky Alley, we pretend, is a magical path through a town that you can only see on Halloween night,” said Courtney Klappert, who runs Spooky Alley.

But after weeks of working to put that all together, Klappert says the show might have to close before Halloween’s scheduled opening night.

“They showed up yesterday afternoon and they told us we have 24 hours to take down all the pallet walls,” said Klappert.

The City of Cape Coral says someone filed a complaint. A code enforcement officer visited the site and found problems. Part of the structure is on the city’s right-of-way and the Klappert’s don’t have a building permit for their wooden walls.

“So if they force us to do this, it will ruin Spooky Alley for this year,” said Klappert.

“Yeah, I find that ridiculous,” said neighbor Carlos Feliciano. “They’re not hurting anyone, it’s for the kids. They’re not making any money off of it. Why take it down?”

Neighbors like Feliciano say they look forward to the Halloween display all year.

“Absolutely. it’s fun. It’s fun for all ages…I don’t see a problem and I live right across the street,” he said.

“I even had a message from one lady this morning that said last year they brought 30 people from their family to see Spooky Alley. We love putting on the display. We love putting smiles on everyone’s faces. We think that holiday displays, whether it’s Halloween or Christmas, are a wonderful gift for the community and that’s why we’ve done it,” said Klappert.