The city of Cape is continuing its concerted code enforcement initiative in the South Cape Community Redevelopment Agency district.<\/p>\n
CRA Code Compliance Officer Patrick Mercado provided an update during Wednesday\u2019s CRA commission meeting, saying there are 23 opened cases, and 40 closed code cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cases we have taken on are a little bit more involved for business and property owners to remediate,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cases are becoming more in-depth and taking longer for businesses to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cases range from health and sanitation, signs, vacant lots, property maintenance and watering violations.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn, sitting as the CRA executive director, addressed the Community Fridge code violation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week there was a major news story and disruption in the environment of the CRA related to outdoor storage and barbered wire fences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said the code compliance officers sweep for one certain thing before moving onto the next. One day it might be all outdoor storage, while the next may be landscaping.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey clear out things to get to the next thing,\u201d Ilczyszyn said.<\/p>\n
There are two zoning districts in the CRA \u2013 South Cape and MXB \u2013 missed use Bimini District. <\/p>\n
In the MXB zoning district, outdoor storage as a primary use is not permitted.<\/p>\n
To allow a refrigerator at the front of the building, a change would have to be made to the code.<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said generally they try to get a business to comply first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first goal is try to get them to alleviate the issue that they caused. Several of the solutions are for the owner to comply and if there is some reason the owner cannot comply, we look for a governmental solution,\u201d he said, which is much more complex.<\/p>\n
Mercado said the average days to close an international property maintenance code is 367.0 days, permit required is 211.5 days, and a\u00a0 business tax receipt and certificate of use is 130 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cCode compliance is taking way too long to go through the compliance process,\u201d he said. \u201cThat noted, the code compliance division is taking a proactive approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cape Coral City Council sits as the CRA Board of Commissioners and Ilczyszyn drew their attention to the proactive verse reactive cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you see is 18 out of the 23 cases that were opened were initiated by the code officer. \u201cEighty percent of them are going around identifying issues and knocking on the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ilczyszyn said there are no reporting criteria for the issues that need to be addressed but do not turn into a case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a bunch of field work, education and what expectation and codes are that we don\u2019t even see,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot more that doesn\u2019t become a case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercado also went through a few new processes that have begun \u2013\u00a0 a code officer can show up at a property and identify a violation, provide a specified fine and a 10-day appeal process.<\/p>\n
There also is a stipulated agreement \u2013 a two-party agreement between the city and the violator. He said both parties have to agreed on a reasonable time for compliance and if the date is not met, both parties agree on a specified daily fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of motivation to get issues resolved on a timely manner,\u201d Mercado said.<\/p>\n
Code Compliance Officer Todd Hoagland said they started using the stipulated agreement process in October last year, a tool they did not use before. <\/p>\n
It is curbing the number of cases that go before the special magistrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are getting resolved without a hearing,\u201d Hoagland said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Bill Steinke said they all want a beautiful city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole purpose of the CRA, pretty much the oldest part of the city, is to remove slum and blight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steinke said he wanted to thank all the businesses in the CRA that were compliant once they understood what the rules were that were not being followed.<\/p>\n
Mercado said there were 133 different cases of educational opportunities \u2013 asking businesses to come into voluntary compliance, which has had a high success rate of 95%. He said the remaining 5% are civil citations.<\/p>\n