☐ Consent Agenda ☐Quasi-Judicial Public Hearing
☐ Regular Business 5:30 pm
☒ Public Hearing Other
DEPARTMENT: Planning & Zoning
SUBMITTED BY: Laura McClelland
PRESENTED BY: Valerie Vicente
TITLE & DESCRIPTION:
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Ordinance / Amending Section 20-1581 of Article XI "Administration and Enforcement" Chapter 20 of The DeSoto County Land Development Regulation
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REQUESTED MOTION:
A motion to recommend to the Board of County Commissioners to adopt/deny the proposed ordinance.
SUMMARY:
Section 20-1581 of the County’s Land Development Regulations (“LDRs”), titled “Notice and initiation of Special Master hearings,” sets forth the County’s process for the initiation of code enforcement proceedings of the various County codes before the County’s Special Master. Specifically, said section provides that the Code Enforcement Officer shall prepare an affidavit of violation and provide said affidavit to the County Administrator who shall serve the affidavit upon the violator pursuant to Section 162.12, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 48, Florida Statues.
Notably, Section 162.12, Florida Statutes, provides the various methods a local government can utilize to provide notices to an alleged violator, including certified mail return receipt, hand delivery, posting, or publication, as more particularly set forth therein. Whereas Chapter 48, Florida Statutes, sets forth the manner of providing personal service of process, utilizing a process server.
As currently codified, Section 20-1581 of the County’s LDRs utilizes the conjunctive “and” to provide that serving of the affidavit of violation must be provided in accordance with Section 162.12, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 48, Florida Statutes, however, having to engage a process server to serve each violator would be cost prohibitive and unduly burdensome, especially where it is not legally required under Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, governing local government code enforcement actions. Therefore, it is proposed and recommended that the “and” be amended to provide “or” in Section 20-1581(b) so that County code enforcement officers may opt to choose whichever process for notice that best suits the circumstances so long as notice is legally effectuated in conformance with state statutes.