One source of cats was this building, which had been covered in brush. The owners plan to build a new home. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Gulf Stream is moving to ease a feral cat problem after North County Road residents complained that their street was being overrun by unwanted felines.
“They are running rampant,” Amy Rowe told town officials at an after-hours town hall meeting on March 25.
Neighbor Olivia Lyons showed a photo of multiple cats waiting to greet her. “I have them in my backyard all day long,” she said. “And my Jack Russell, who’s 2, barks and is jumping up against the window.”
Town Manager Trey Nazzaro sent a letter to all residents on March 30 cautioning them not to feed feral or stray cats.
“When food sources are made readily available, stray cat populations tend to grow quickly,” he wrote. “This can lead to increased noise, territorial behavior, and the spread of disease among animals.”
The town uses a trap-neuter-vaccinate-return program to stabilize and gradually reduce the number of feral cats, he said.
“Since October of 2025 our TNVR provider has trapped 15 cats or kittens” on County Road, Nazzaro told town commissioners at their April 10 meeting.
Nevertheless, he said the town would switch providers to monitor the situation more regularly.
Adding to the problem was the house at 4220 N. County Road, which residents Stephen and Jennifer Streit bought in late 2022 but had fallen into disrepair and was overgrown with vegetation.
Nazzaro put the couple on notice March 27 that the property was an unlawful nuisance. The Streits, who live on Wright Way, had the underbrush cleared and sent a representative to the April 10 commission meeting to say they expected to submit plans in May to demolish the dilapidated structure and build a new house.
Nazzaro said the new structure might be the largest on North County, possibly 7,000 square feet or almost as large as the home being built at 3400 Polo Drive.
He is also having the town attorney look at updating the fine for code enforcement violations from $25, set when it was enacted in 1978, to $125, the same value in today’s dollars.
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