Cape Coral’s Code Compliance Division is proposing an amendment to the Prohibited Conditions on Private Real Property section of the city’s code of ordinances to provide an expedited process for noticing, fining, appealing and remedying health and sanitation violations. 

City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said since his start in February 2023, Council made it clear that the city’s ability to affect change on private property through the existing code enforcement process was cumbersome and lengthy, ultimately resulting in no condition changes on said properties.  

“Although our officers do the best they can working with the owner, whether it be a business or a real person, sometimes that process and what is allowed to exist and in trying to gain compliance takes a lot longer than then this Council would have liked,” he said. 

Since then, Ilczyszyn had several meetings with Code Compliance Manager Todd Hoagland and his code supervisors, along with the city attorney and the assistant city attorney to explore how the city decrease what Ilczyszyn said is currently about a 220-day process to 30 days or less.  

Hoagland identified five areas of focus that are the common issues the city sees that affect the residents’ quality of life. The five areas include obnoxious growth, dangerous/dilapidated buildings, stagnant water, sidewalk repair and storage of junk. 

“Health and sanitation is something that we face each and every day within our community,” Hoagland said. “No one likes to see obnoxious growth or outdoor storage of junk, so our effort here today is to reduce the amount of time that condition is within our community.” 

While watering violations are the top violation in the city, the proposed amendment aims to use a similar process for the second top violation the city experiences: health and sanitation. 

New penalties for the five focus areas start with a $150 fine for the first offense. From there, the fines will increase to $500 for a second violation within a year, a $1,000 fine for the third violation within a year and a $2,000 fine for the fourth violation within a year. 

From the initial citation, the violator has 10 days to file an appeal by requesting an administrative hearing before the special magistrate. Failure to appeal the violation within 10 days will constitute an admission of the violation and a waiver of the right to a hearing. 

If the violator does not request an administrative hearing within the 10-day period, the city may then take all necessary actions to remediate the violation and bring the property into compliance and charge the violator with the reasonable cost of the repairs or the reasonable cost for removing or correcting the violation, along with the civil fine. 

The proposed amendment to the ordinance also states a certified copy of an order imposing a civil fine, or a civil fine plus remediation costs, will be recorded in public records and constitute a lien upon any real or personal property owned by the violator. 

Mayor John Gunter asked if the proposed changes would be applied to all code regulations, but City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said just focusing on the top five violations identified in health and sanitation will allow staff to work out any kinks before completely switching to a new code enforcement process.  

“The issue that we have to work out is what does administration do on the back end?” Ilczyszyn said. “I’m going to need to staff up contractors, [people] that are going to go in there and clean properties, fence contractors, pump and clean out companies for standing water and tow companies to remove vehicles.” 

Ilczyszyn said overall he doesn’t feel comfortable implementing a new process to all codes because the cost of the proposed process is still unknown. “We expect a spike in the beginning, but what we hope to see a great drop off and people cleaning stuff up,” he said. “I’m going to need at least six months to let you all know how much money I’m going to need for the whole year.” 

Gunter said he would be in support of the proposed amendment. “We want to get that message out in the community that there is a standard, and we have to be held to that standard no matter who we are,” he said. 

Cost and savings will be monitored if Council moves forward with the proposed amendment, which Ilczyszyn said will be brought to a Council meeting for discussion.