Code Enforcement in Fort Pierce

The City of Fort Pierce Code Enforcement Division, part of the city's Community Response department, enforces city ordinances on property inside the city limits.

The city FAQ gives the general Code Enforcement office line as (772) 467-3720, answered Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and notes that officers spend most of the day in the field, so a voicemail is the expected route when nobody picks up (City of Fort Pierce FAQ). Two other city documents print a different number. The March 2022 downtown parking and tram guide lists Code Enforcement at 772.467.3149 in its contact box, while its own FAQ panel on the same sheet gives (772) 467.3720 for parking violations (Downtown Fort Pierce Parking and Tram Guide). The city FAQ also uses (772) 467-3149 for questions about a lien, and lists that same number for the Animal Control office. Both numbers appear on official City of Fort Pierce pages, and the FAQ also gives (772) 467-3149 for reporting a parking violation.

Fort Pierce City Hall is at 100 N U.S. Highway 1, phone 772-467-3000, and the same address receives mailed citation payments for the Finance Department (City of Fort Pierce Citation Process).

Jurisdiction matters before any call. St. Lucie County Code Compliance works only in the unincorporated county, and its reporting page tells residents inside the city limits of Fort Pierce or Port St. Lucie to file the complaint with the city instead; the county page points to its online jurisdiction lookup map for an address that could fall on either side (St. Lucie County, Report a Code Violation).

A Fort Pierce code complaint goes to the city through the Report an Issue link to SeeClickFix on the Code Enforcement menu, or by phone to the Code Enforcement office, and the person reporting must give a name and address.

The Code Enforcement section of the city website lists Report an Issue, SeeClickFix, beside the Citation Process, Notice of Violation Process, Nuisance Abatement Process and Common Violations pages (City of Fort Pierce Common Violations). The downtown parking guide carries the same SeeClickFix prompt next to the city contact numbers, with 911 reserved for emergencies (downtown parking and tram guide).

Anonymous reports no longer start a code case in Fort Pierce or anywhere else in Florida. Section 162.06(1)(b) of the Florida Statutes bars a code inspector from starting enforcement proceedings on an anonymous complaint and requires the person reporting to provide a name and address to the local government first, with an exception when the inspector believes the violation is an imminent threat to public health, safety or welfare or imminent destruction of habitat or sensitive resources (F.S. 162.06). Section 162.21(3)(b) applies the same rule before a code enforcement officer investigates for a citation (F.S. 162.21). St. Lucie County dates the change to Senate Bill 60, effective July 1, 2021, and warns that the reporter's name and address become part of the public record (St. Lucie County Code Compliance).

According to the Fort Pierce FAQ, a majority of Code Enforcement cases start from a complaint, and every complaint must be investigated (Fort Pierce Code Enforcement FAQ).

After a Fort Pierce violation is found, Florida law requires the inspector to notify the owner and allow a reasonable time to correct it before a hearing is requested, except for repeat violations and serious threats.

Section 162.06(2), which binds Fort Pierce like every Florida city, sets that sequence: notice and a correction period first, then, if the violation continues past the deadline, a request for a hearing with written notice delivered or mailed to the violator (F.S. 162.06). A repeat violation can go to a hearing without a new correction period, and a case in which the violation recurs or misses the correction deadline can still be heard even if it was corrected before the hearing, when the notice says so. Subsection (4) allows an immediate hearing request for a violation that is a serious threat to public health, safety and welfare or is irreparable or irreversible.

The Fort Pierce FAQ explains what the notice itself contains. State law requires the Code Enforcement Division to name the specific ordinance being violated, officers add the specific corrective actions, and the officer's name and phone number sit at the bottom of the notice of violation (City of Fort Pierce FAQ). The FAQ adds that an ordinance can list conditions that do not exist on a given property, so a notice may quote conditions that are not present on the property, and it directs owners with a question about the notice to the officer named on it.

Ownership changes do not erase a case. The city must cite the current owner, so a buyer who inherits an unpermitted shed or fence becomes responsible for it, though the FAQ notes the buyer keeps the right to pursue civil action against the previous owner (Fort Pierce FAQ). If a property under an enforcement proceeding is sold before the hearing, Section 162.06(5) requires the seller to disclose the proceeding in writing, hand over the notices, and file a notice of the transfer with the code enforcement official within 5 days; the case is not dismissed, but the new owner gets a reasonable period to correct the violation (F.S. 162.06(5)).

Fort Pierce code citations are civil penalties of $50 to $250, set by the class of the violation and the number of earlier citations, and a third offense in Class I or II or a second offense in Class III goes to mandatory court.

The City of Fort Pierce Citation Process page says Code Enforcement Officers and Animal Control Officers issue these citations under Florida Statute 162.21, and that the citations are civil in nature (City of Fort Pierce Citation Process). It gives two options for any city ordinance citation, parking included. Paying the civil penalty admits the violation; payment goes in person or by mail to the City of Fort Pierce Finance Department, 100 N US Hwy 1, Fort Pierce, FL 34950, by check payable to The City of Fort Pierce, never cash in the mail. Disputing it means filing the Citation Dispute Form, after which the case goes before a Special Magistrate in the Commission Chambers of City Hall on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at 9:00 am, unless the matter requires mandatory court. Mandatory court citations are filed with the St. Lucie County Clerk of Court, which sends notice of the hearing date, and a St. Lucie County Judge hears them.

Before a Fort Pierce code citation, Section 162.21(3)(c) requires an officer to give notice and a correction period of no more than 30 days before issuing a citation, except for repeat violations and serious or irreversible ones, and subsection (3)(d) lists what every citation must show, including the code section violated and the procedure to pay or contest (F.S. 162.21).

The Fort Pierce Common Violations page prints the code text behind the violations the city lists as common, among them property maintenance, nuisances and overgrowth, trash and bulk waste, signs, fences, vehicles, trees and sea turtle lighting.

The classes come from the Fort Pierce Citation Process schedule; the rule text comes from the Fort Pierce Common Violations page. A few rules from that page catch residents most often. Section 24-19(11) requires trees to be trimmed to a seven-foot clear height and says hedges and bushes should be trimmed to a maximum of two and one-half feet, with exceptions such as occupied single-family homes with a routinely maintained landscaping plan. Section 24-19 also lists outdoor storage of indoor furniture such as upholstered sofas, graffiti, stagnant pool water and wrecked or partially dismantled vehicles as nuisances. In residential districts, Section 125-315 bars parking a commercial vehicle or semitrailer on residential property for more than one hour in any twenty-four-hour period unless it is in an enclosed garage or a police permit is obtained first.

Other Fort Pierce entries are easy to overlook. House numbers must be at least 3 inches tall and plainly visible from the street under IPMC 304.3, a lot may host no more than four garage sales in a calendar year under Section 22-296, and residential fences may reach six feet along property lines but four feet in the required front yard under Section 125-322 (Common Violations). Under Section 125-308(a), corner clear vision areas may hold no planting, fence or obstruction over twenty-four inches tall, and on beachfront property Section 16-82 requires fixtures to be shielded so light is not directly visible from the beach.

When an order is not obeyed, a code board or special magistrate can impose daily fines, and a recorded order becomes a lien on the property; Fort Pierce provides the paperwork to request a lien reduction once the property is brought into compliance.

For a Fort Pierce code case, Section 162.09 of the Florida Statutes generally caps the daily fine at $250 for a first violation and $500 for a repeat violation, allows up to $5,000 per violation when the violation is irreparable or irreversible, and has the board weigh the gravity of the violation, any corrective action and prior violations; subsection (2)(d) lets a county or city with a population of 50,000 or more adopt higher limits by ordinance (F.S. 162.09). A certified copy of an order imposing a fine may be recorded in the public records, and it then constitutes a lien against the land and other property of the violator. The same section lets a board reduce a fine.

The Fort Pierce FAQ describes the local route. An owner who finds a lien must first bring the property into compliance, contacting the Code Enforcement Officer on the case; once that is done, the city provides the paperwork to request a reduction of the lien (City of Fort Pierce FAQ). A buyer who discovers a lien after closing is told to contact the title company first if one handled the transfer, and otherwise to call (772) 467-3149 to learn what is required for compliance.