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Sumter County commissioners weigh active code enforcement, direct county attorney to seek injunctive relief on problem property
Summary
After debating a pilot active code‑enforcement program and education campaigns, commissioners directed the county attorney to pursue injunctive relief on a photographed 'Creech' property and asked staff to prepare potential code amendments and budget estimates for enforcement legal work.
Commissioners on March 17 spent the bulk of their workshop debating whether to shift from a complaint‑driven code‑enforcement model toward a narrowly targeted, active enforcement pilot in areas with high complaint concentrations such as Lake Panasoffkee.
Staff presented maps and lists showing complaint volumes and enforcement processing times, and recommended a pilot that would be preceded by a public education campaign and clear targeting criteria. Several commissioners protested active canvassing of properties as government overreach; others worried about inconsistent or selective enforcement. County legal counsel said a narrowly defined pilot with documented legislative findings and public notice would be a defensible policy and better than arbitrary enforcement.
The board reviewed photographs of two problem properties known as the Creech property. County counsel described two prior successful injunctive‑relief cases and explained that the statutory “repeat violator” definition requires a special‑master finding; that can leave a loophole when owners cure pre‑hearing and then resume violations. Counsel said a court can still grant injunctive relief if the property’s conduct is sufficiently egregious even if the strict numerical repeat‑offender test is not met.
After discussion, multiple commissioners indicated they supported directing the county attorney to file for injunctive relief on the Creech property as a test of the court’s receptiveness to that remedy and to identify whether code changes are needed. Staff also was asked to explore code amendments that would create a county definition or enforcement path for pre‑hearing repeat activity, and to prepare budget estimates for increased legal work — staff flagged average legal fees near $3,000 per case with some complex matters rising to $10,000–$20,000.
The board also discussed adjustments to the county’s waiver‑of‑fines policy: staff suggested requiring property owners to resolve outstanding violations in other jurisdictions before receiving county waivers and identified municipal lien searches as a verification tool. Commissioners directed further work on the waiver policy and prioritizing faster legal processing for older non‑homestead cases.
