Code Enforcement in Unincorporated St. Lucie County

St. Lucie County's Code Compliance Division handles code complaints only for unincorporated land; addresses inside Fort Pierce or Port St. Lucie city limits go to those cities.

The division's Code Compliance page places the office on the second floor of the county building at 2300 Virginia Avenue in Ft. Pierce, with hours of Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a main line at (772) 462-1571. The same page says four Code Compliance Officers and two Contractor Licensing Investigators serve the county, and it lists separate numbers for Contractor Licensing, (772) 462-1672, and the Planning and Development Services department, (772) 462-2822.

Jurisdiction is the first thing to settle. The county report a code violation page asks people to confirm the property is in the unincorporated area, tells Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie residents to file with their city, and links an interactive jurisdiction map that looks up an address. The St. Lucie County building permits guide covers the permit side of the same office.

Reports go through the Service Request Access site on St. Lucie County's Citizen Self Service, and since July 1, 2021 the county cannot act on anonymous reports.

The St. Lucie County reporting page ties that change to Senate Bill 60. The person reporting must give a name and address, which become part of the public record, whether the report is made by phone, email, online or in person. The page carves out one exception: cases where the inspector has reason to believe the violation poses an imminent danger to public health, safety or welfare, or imminently threatens habitat or sensitive resources.

The state text behind the St. Lucie County rule is section 162.06, Florida Statutes. Under it, no enforcement proceeding may begin from an anonymous complaint, and whoever reports a potential violation has to provide a name and address to the local government first. The same subsection gives the duty of starting enforcement to the code inspector and denies that power to board members.

The St. Lucie County common code violations page lists the rules it cites most, from pet limits and boat storage to work done without a permit.

The Code Compliance FAQ fills in details residents ask about. St. Lucie County has no maximum grass height, though the FAQ gives 12 inches as a rule of thumb. A pool needs a fence along the property lines with secure gates or a 4-foot-high fence around the pool, even one that has been there for 20 years. The county has a noise ordinance, and an officer can visit to decide whether there is a violation. A vehicle passes inspection if its tires are inflated and it starts and moves; current registration is not required.

Two more items on the St. Lucie County list concern work rather than upkeep. Code 10-56 requires anyone in business as a contractor to hold a certificate of competency, which the page notes is not the same as an occupational license, and code 6.00.00 says contractors and homeowners should check with the Environmental Department before clearing or removing vegetation, since a permit or exemption may be required. Contractor questions go to the Contractor Licensing line listed above.

A St. Lucie County notice of violation normally gives 14 days to comply, with a shorter time for public health and safety issues, according to the county Code Compliance FAQ.

The FAQ says the county will grant an extension when an owner needs more time because of a hardship. The notice includes language about a daily fine of $250.00, but the FAQ explains that no fine accrues until the case has been heard at one or more board meetings, a process it says takes months and several hearings. Owners may represent themselves before the Code Enforcement Board, and the county encourages them to attend and explain their case. A new owner inherits responsibility for structures a prior owner built without permits.

State law sets the outer limits for the St. Lucie County board. Under section 162.06, the inspector who finds a violation notifies the violator and gives a reasonable time for correction, and only if it continues past that time asks the board for a hearing; for a repeat violation no correction period is required, and a violation the inspector believes is a serious danger or is irreparable or irreversible may go to the board immediately. Section 162.09 limits a fine to $250 per day for a first violation and $500 per day for a repeat violation, permits a fine of up to $5,000 per violation for an irreparable or irreversible violation, and lets a board reduce a fine. The statute also allows a county or city with a population of 50,000 or more to adopt, by a vote of a majority plus one, an ordinance authorizing higher fines.

The St. Lucie County Code Enforcement Board is a quasi-judicial board that hears code cases and can levy fines on properties found in violation.

Its board page says the board was created on June 2, 1987, through Ordinance No. 87-19, and that a special magistrate designated by the Board of County Commissioners serves as the Code Enforcement Board. Meetings are held the first Wednesday of every month in the County Commission Chamber of the Roger Poitras Administration Annex, 2300 Virginia Avenue in Fort Pierce, and the Code Compliance page gives the usual start time as 9 a.m. Recordings of past meetings are posted on the county's Online Media Center under a Code Enforcement Board section.

The board page also notes that financial disclosure is required to serve, and it links the St. Lucie County Meeting Portal.

St. Lucie County offers two ways to reduce a code lien once the violation is corrected: a fine reduction hearing, where the FAQ says the board generally cuts the lien by 75%, and the Annual Lien Amnesty Program, which reduces it by 90%.

According to the St. Lucie County FAQ, an owner who does not correct a violation faces a lien of $5,000 on residential property and $10,000 or higher on commercial property, and the lien stays on the parcel for twenty years unless the violation is abated and the lien released. The amnesty program runs every year from April through June. For a fine reduction hearing, the Code Compliance page says an owner who has abated the violation brings a written request to the Code Enforcement offices, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and staff take it to the board.

Section 162.09, Florida Statutes adds a protection that applies in St. Lucie County as everywhere in Florida: no lien created under the code enforcement chapter may be foreclosed on real property that is a homestead under the State Constitution.

St. Lucie County limits recreational vehicles, boats and trailers on smaller lots and allows backyard chickens only with a county registration.

Two St. Lucie County pages word the vehicle rule differently. The Code Compliance FAQ says a property under one acre may have up to two recreational vehicles parked on pavement, and that they may stay if parked behind a fence in the rear yard out of view from the street. The common code violations page says no property may have more than 2 vehicles unless it is over 1 acre, that boats, trailers and RVs parked in front must sit on a concrete pad, and that only one vehicle may be in the front area.

For chickens, the Backyard Chicken Program page says the Board of County Commissioners approved the program for occupied single-family residential properties in unincorporated St. Lucie County, excluding River Park Subdivision, with an online application and questions to Code Compliance at 772-462-1571. The FAQ sets the limit at five chickens with no roosters, in the RE-1, RE-2, RS-2, RS-3 and RS-4 zoning districts, kept in a coop that meets Land Development Code 7.10.23.D and not allowed to roam. The same FAQ says a nonresidential farm building or pole barn needs no building permit on land the Property Appraiser classifies as agricultural under section 193.461, Florida Statutes.