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Proposed Ordinance Providing to Hear Appeals Pertaining to Standard Unsafe Building Abatement Code; Modifying Standard Unsafe Building Abatement Code; Enacting Rules of Procedure for Hearing Appeals
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BRIEF OVERVIEW
On January 29, 1991, the Board of County Commissioners (the “BOCC”) adopted the Standard Unsafe Building Code by enacting Ordinance 91-09. That ordinance, which was subsequently codified as Hernando County Code Chapter 8, Article II, Division 6, incorporates the Standard Unsafe Building Code by reference. The BOCC subsequently amended the Standard Unsafe Building Code several times, and those amendments are codified as Hernando County Code § 8-136(b).
Currently, the County Code allows a property owner to appeal an adverse unsafe structure ruling of the Building Official to the Hernando County Board of Construction and Regulation (the “BCR”). Twice during the last twelve months, the BCR has lacked sufficient members to form a quorum, which resulting in the BOCC having to hear unsafe building appeals on an ad hoc basis. Chapter 5 of the Standard Unsafe Building Code sets forth the procedures applicable to such appeals, but those procedures are complex, unduly burdensome, and do not comport with the laws governing local government quasi-judicial hearings. For example, the current rules provide for hearing officers who can make recommended orders, the subpoenaing of witnesses, fact-finding site visits, and a now illegally short judicial review period.
The BOCC, during its meeting on August 26, 2025, directed the County’s staff to draft an ordinance that would modernize the procedures applicable to unsafe building appeals and to permanently authorize the BOCC to hear such appeals when the BCR lacks a quorum. The attached, proposed ordinance is the result.
The proposed ordinance makes three changes to Hernando County Code Chapter 8, Article II, Division 6. First, it adds a provision to Chapter 1 of the Standard Unsafe Building Abatement Code that will permanently allow the BOCC to hear unsafe building appeals when the BCR lacks a quorum (Proposed Ordinance at Page 2, Lines 1-11). Second, it implements the recently enacted Fla. Stat. § 50.0311 by allowing the County to provide the public with notice of an unsafe building appeal hearing on the County’s website, as opposed to the Code’s current requirement that the County publish such notice in a general circulation newspaper once a week for four consecutive weeks (Proposed Ordinance at Page 3, Lines 8-10). Third, it adopts procedures for unsafe building appeals that are substantively identical to those that the BOCC uses in all of its other quasi-judicial hearings (Proposed Ordinance at Page 4, Lines 14-17; and at Pages 5 through 8, passim).
Finally, please note that although Hernando County Code § 23-229(b)(1) classifies all of Chapter 8 as a land development regulation (“LDR”), the proposed ordinance does enact regulations “affecting the use of land,” and as a result, it does not trigger the notice and two-hearings requirements of Fla. Stat. § 125.66(5)(b). See Galaxy Fireworks, Inc. v. City of Orlando, 842 So. 2d 160, 165 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003) (holding fire code amendment not subject to heightened notice and hearing requirements because fire code “does not regulate what can be built on land, in the sense of land development, but rather it mandates requirements for the structure of a building, if used for certain purposes, in order to safeguard the public from fire hazards.”); 3299 N. Fed. Highway, Inc. v. Board of County Commissioners of Broward County, 646 So. 2d 215, 224 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994), opinion clarified (Nov. 29, 1994) (“notice and hearing requirements are not usually imposed upon changes to municipal building or construction codes”).
FINANCIAL IMPACT
NA
LEGAL NOTE
The Board has the authority to enact the proposed ordinance pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 125.01.
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RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Board enact the proposed ordinance.