On November 16, 2022, the Mayor and City Commission referred item C4AC, entitled “Discussion Regarding Criminal Penalties for Demolition by Neglect when Civil Penalties Remain Unpaid at the Time of Demolition,” sponsored by Commissioner Alex Fernandez, to both the Land Use and Sustainability Committee (“LUSC”) and the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee (“PSNQLC”).

The item was heard at the March 1, 2023 LUSC meeting at which time the Committee expressed its dissatisfaction at our community being deprived of an important part of the City’s history due to the conduct of certain property owners.  The LUSC further discussed how fines weren’t being paid and, moreover, fines hadn’t proven to be a sufficient deterrent.  As such, the LUSC considered the possibility of enacting criminal penalties as an additional enforcement option, in the hope that criminal penalties would provide an enhanced deterrent to avoid property owners allowing historic properties to fall into disrepair and reach the point of ultimately being demolished.

In concluding the item, the LUSC unanimously agreed that the City Attorney’s Office would work with the Sponsor to bring a proposed Ordinance, which would provide for criminal penalties, to the May 10, 2023 LUSC meeting.  Since that time, the City Attorney’s has reviewed and discussed this matter in anticipation of drafting a proposed Ordinance that will most effectively accomplish the Committee’s desire (the preservation of the City’s historic structures) by providing criminal penalties for those property owners who willfully or intentionally fail to take appropriate and necessary remedial action to prevent the demolition of their property.