Bonita beefs up code enforcement efforts

Bonita Springs Code Enforcement officers will now be able to condemn or demolish unsafe and unsanitary structures quicker since the city council passed a new ordinance today.

The city was following Lee County's ordinance for dealing with deplorable buildings, but the new code, which is aligned with the 2006 International Property Maintenance Code, will allow officers to enforce codes on all buildings in the city.

The county's ordinance had definitions for each structure, which allowed many to slip through the cracks, said Code Enforcement Supervisor Frank Cassidy.

Since the department started in October 2005, changes in a handful of codes tightened code enforcement officers’ abilities to remove junk cars, and cut overgrown lawns and bring rental properties up to code.

"The public's going to get what they deserve on this one," said Joe Mazurkiewicz, who spoke on behalf of the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Mazurkiewicz said many people will complain to the council about the code, but forcing property owners to bring their homes and businesses into compliance will clean up the city.

"It's a comprehensive code," Cassidy said. "There's a reason (codes) are comprehensive. Landowners and property owners aren't taking care of their properties."

Cassidy said the city has to define every detail of an ordinance to avoid situations where people use chicken wire when asked to put up a screen or fill a hole in the wall with expanding foam, he said. Many makeshift solutions are not only an aesthetic problem, but are fire hazards, he said.

Codes on garage sales, signs and drying laundry on clothes lines in the front yard are the next that need updating, Cassidy said.