Civic group hosts code enforcement speaker
Code enforcement was on the minds of the Fort Myers Beach Civic Association members and guests as they hosted Town Community Development Director Dr. Frank Shockey at their monthly meeting at St. Peter Church on Tuesday, March 16. Shockey was a fill-in for original guest speaker Dave Hedrich, the Town Code Officer, who became ill during the day.
Shockey, who recently shed the interim status on his director position and is Hedrich’s boss, discussed signage and garbage issues and weighed complaint-driven enforcement versus proactive force before fielding questions.
Before distributing fines, his department would like to help code breakers in their compliance to the rules if needed.
“Florida is a home-rule state which means we get to govern ourselves (as a town),” said Shockey, who mentioned the town currently has one code enforcement officer and is advertising to bring a second on board. “The state has specified some of the ways we enforce our rules. Code enforcement officers are trained to deal with those who have erred and convince them voluntarily.”
Lately, the town has been asked to take a more pro-active approach to its procedures in code enforcement.
“The procedures that we follow are somewhat cumbersome” said Shockey. “They involve giving the person a chance to comply and talking to them before we take any further action so that they can understand what the rules are. It’s a lot cheaper if Dave (Hedrich) talks to a person instead of going to hearings and (administers) fines.”
Shockey explained some communities believe enforcement should be complaint driven involving neighbor reports, while other communities think pro-active enforcement where officers go out and look for violations and follow up on them is better.
“We’ve talked about doing a combination of both: proactive enforcement with the officers that we have and being open to receive complaints which neighbors can see that we can’t necessarily see from the street,” he said. “This allows us to be fairly even-handed.”
Regarding garbage, the Beach Town Council will soon undergo hearings for rule changes. The town rule states all non-movable refuse containers must be strained from view from joint properties on the street. Shockey believes changing the rule to allow taller fences to hide containers rather than make each citizen apply for a variance is cost efficient and noncontroversial. All movable trash containers should also require a lid in case wind or animals knock them over and spread refuse onto the street.
Regarding sign ordinance, Shockey said signs should not be more than five feet tall and much bigger than 32 square feet. Beach businesses have been encouraged to replace their signs voluntarily in compliance with that standard.
“You need to be very careful to reach the mechanism you use to reach the goal you set.” he said. “I want to give great credit to all the people who did (change their signs) because it has improved the appearance of the town. (The ones who haven’t) have to follow the same rules that everyone else has up to this point. The best way is to compel people to replace their sign through code enforcement.”
Questions ranged from beach-raking permits to view-blocking vegetation and benches to abandoned commercial signs to the neglected town noise ordinance law.
“In the end it comes down to would the town council take the person’s property or release the lien for some mitigated amount of money or because the property was brought into compliance or would they take that ultimate step,” said Shockey about abandoned signs.
One suggestion to aid in problematic noisy open-door entertainment establishments is to ask the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to keep a record of repeated calls and visits to the businesses which are in violation then provide them to the town for code officer follow-ups.
FMB Councilman Tom Babcock, who was in attendance, was asked for his opinion on the matter.
“Our job as council is to set policy and sometimes those policies aren’t as good as they could be,” he said. “Noise ordinance is probably a good example. It will come back for review in a different sense that I think was intended originally. It’s not a simple task to be able to say it’s going to be too noisy. You have to define the way you’re going to measure it and have it be enforceable for the sheriff to defend it in any legal action and expect to get results.”