Protecting the Bay and Coastal Dune Lakes

On the BCC Agenda for today:

COMMISSIONER DANNY GLIDEWELL, DISTRICT TWO

Changes to Code Enforcement

As Walton County grows and we continue to understand how land development effects our bay and coastal dune lakes, it is clear that changes are needed to protect our unique bay and lakes from activities that do not follow the rules.I propose that we take the following steps to strengthen our enforcement efforts and give our officers additional tools to do their jobs:

1. Grant our officers the authority to issue emergency 72-hour stop work orders. This authority will allow officers to stop potentially devastating destruction of natural buffer areas.

2. Allow developers to appeal these orders to the Planning Director within the 72-hourperiod. After appeal or 72-hours is complete these orders become permanent.

3. In cases where these stop work orders require a restoration plan, the order will remain in place until the restoration plan is approved by the Planning Department. After the plan is approved, only restoration activity will be allowed on the lot until the restoration work is complete and approved by the Department. No other development activity is allowed until the restoration plan is complete and the stop work order lifted.

4. Code Enforcement is required to staff an officer 7 days a week.

5. Code Enforcement is authorized to begin the process to hire one to Code officer to facilitate this staffing level. This officer will be funded through contingency funds.