Special magistrate orders permits, pauses fines and reduces liens at Fort Pierce code-enforcement hearing

The City of Fort Pierce Special Magistrate on March 13, 2025 found code violations across multiple properties, ordered owners to obtain permits within set timeframes and, in several cases, stayed the accrual of fines or reduced long-standing liens to administrative costs.

The hearing covered about two dozen enforcement files ranging from exterior structural damage at a four-unit condominium to expired permits, infestations and large liens on commercial and residential properties. The magistrate repeatedly ordered property owners to obtain required permits, comply with inspections and warned that unpaid matters could incur fines of $100 per day or revert to previously assessed amounts if payment plans were not met.

Why it matters: The decisions determine whether buildings must be vacated, how quickly repairs must begin, and whether accrued fines and liens will be reduced — outcomes that affect property owners, tenants and the city’s efforts to remediate blight.

Inspectors for the city presented photographs and case histories. "The case was initiated 09/12/2024," said Logan Wynne, a building inspector and investigator for the City of Fort Pierce, describing evidence for 332 Hernando Street. Owners and managers told the magistrate they had engaged engineers and contractors and that permit applications were in process.

The magistrate struck one interior-stairs charge in the Hernando Street case but found violations 1 through 4 existed and gave the owners 60 days to obtain permits. "I find that the violations, 1 through 4 exist and that the violators be given 60 days to obtain a permit," the magistrate said when…