Homestead special master fines mobile vendor $5,000, grants multiple extensions and dismisses one dumping charge

Special Master Michael Styles opened the Homestead City code compliance special-master hearing on April 10, 2025 and issued a series of rulings affecting dozens of properties, including a $5,000 fine for a repeat mobile-vendor violation, multiple deadline extensions for 40-year building recertifications and fence permits, and a dismissal of an illegal-dumping citation for insufficient evidence.

The hearing matters affect property owners, property managers and contractors across Homestead. The decisions addressed mobile vending without a permit, defective sidewalks and tree limbs, fence installations without permits, bulk-trash and illegal-dumping citations, and outstanding 40-year recertification filings for older buildings.

Most consequential enforcement action: repeat mobile-vendor fine Special Master Michael Styles imposed the maximum penalty in a repeat mobile-vendor case, saying, “Im going to do the maximum penalty and my maximum penalty is $5,000,” for case CE25030070 involving Jacinta Lucia Tercero. The ruling followed testimony from Homestead Police and code officers that the vendor had been stopped multiple times and had paid a prior citation but not the later one. The order in the record is a $5,000 civil fine; no administrative-fee assessment was recorded in the transcript for that ruling.

Extensions granted for building recertifications and repairs The hearing granted time to several property owners and managers to complete required work or to obtain permits: - Case CE2520065 (clubhouse renovation for a community/clubhouse…