Owner says illegal dumping drove him to use a dumpster; county orders cleanup and permits to be resolved

Pinellas County’s special magistrate found zoning and trash violations at 5401 Russell Avenue in Clearwater and ordered the property owner to bring the site into compliance within 30 days.

Senior Officer Duvall presented three violations against owner Etai/"Ty" Cohen: excessive trash and overgrowth (58-3-04), placement of a dumpster without a zoning clearance (138.90), and placement of a dumpster in county right-of-way without a permit (154.231). Duvall described repeated illegal dumping and a history of incomplete zoning-clearance submittals; he said the dumpster sometimes sat partly on county property. Duvall asked for a finding of violation and compliance orders. Cohen told the magistrate he had worked with Waste Management to cancel a commercial dumpster account and that the company had demanded nearly $4,000 to cancel. He said illegal dumping has been ongoing: “I’ve been dealing with illegal dumping for over a year... I spent thousands of dollars fixing this problem.”

The magistrate found violations and ordered compliance within 30 days (09/11/2024 at 5 p.m.), with $100-per-day fines to be imposed if the violations persist. Fuller noted county staff had previously requested additional documentation for a zoning clearance and advised Cohen to notify code enforcement after the dumpster was removed so county staff could re-inspect.