The roof of this home on Harbour Drive North has been in need of repair for years. Coastal Star photo
By Anne Geggis
A house in disrepair — for years now — is among the reasons that Ocean Ridge town leaders plan to consider dedicating a new position to keeping properties looking shipshape.
A Town Commission budget discussion June 3 pointed up the need for code enforcement to become a town employee’s designated job again. It turns out code enforcement hasn’t been assigned to a specific person since a police officer doing the job retired last year.
And it shows, Commissioner David Hutchins said.
“We want people to realize they have to take care of their property,” Hutchins said, noting that the house at 62 Harbour Drive North with missing roof tiles and a garage door that doesn’t close hasn’t been inhabited for years.
Even if commissioners are pointing at it, the house has not generated any code enforcement complaints since the current owner, Michael Hemlepp of Delray Beach, purchased the property in 2018. His attorney, John Nadjafi, said his client intends to tear down the building, but has run into delays designing the new home and finding the equipment and workers to do that.
“There are a lot of reasons construction projects get delayed,” Nadjafi said, citing the supply-chain woes during the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.
Regarding the new staff position, Town Manager Lynne Ladner warned it is more dangerous to have someone who doesn’t wear a uniform doing code enforcement.
“Code enforcement is considered to be one of the higher risk professions,” Ladner said. “I have been to a code enforcement officer’s funeral. … He was shot, attempting to serve a friendly notice to someone about their yard.”
But police officers are not thrilled about doing it, either, and being in uniform unnecessarily escalates the situation, officers said during a discussion at the June 3 Town Commission meeting.
“Because we’re knocking on the door and saying, ‘Hey, you put out your debris in your yard’ … the homeowner might see that as something petty,” Ocean Ridge Officer Aaron Choban said.
Chief Scott McClure explained further: Sending police out to cite people for dirty roofs does not build community trust and rapport.
“Having someone with a gun and a badge tell you your house is dirty, it’s not the way to build good will,” McClure said, noting that his officers are stretched thin on road patrol, keeping dogs off the beach and checking for crime.
“We’ll handle complaints, but I think code enforcement should be strictly a civilian function. Our focus is keeping residents safe,” he said.
Among South County municipalities, the handling of code enforcement has taken on different forms. In Gulf Stream, for example, the police take note of homes that don’t comply with the code and notify town administration, which mails out official notices.
South Palm Beach has a company doing its code enforcement, as does Briny Breezes. Highland Beach has the job attached to its Building Department, but police do the job when a code officer is not working. Boca Raton has a separate code enforcement division within City Hall, which works closely with police, according to city spokeswoman Anne Marie Connolly. Boynton Beach also has a civilian division within City Hall.
Delray Beach, however, is trying something new to beef up its civilian community services division that handles property not meeting code, said Police Chief Russ Mager.
If a police officer sees a quality-of-life issue, such as an unleashed dog, he or she will be empowered to write a ticket for the infraction that comes with a fine, Mager said.
Dr. Victor Martel, an Ocean Ridge resident since 1997, said the town should either enforce its codes or take them off the books. Since state law in 2021 made it so that complaints can’t be anonymous, he said he has seen the situation getting worse.
“This one house, the roof is close to black,” Martel said. “They are nice people. I’m not going to say anything, but it should be taken care of.”
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