Eric Wardle, the city’s chief of code compliance, said that a final draft is likely to be presented in June.

The ordinance will include a method to issue citations and fines.

“The first one will probably be a warning,” Wardle said. “The second citation would probably be $100. This is all subject to approval by the City Council.”
The action is in response to the city receiving numerous complaints from property and business owners about landscape debris being dumped on swales and vacant lots.

“It’s a problem city- wide,” he said. “We wanted to address those issues.”
According to Wardle, the problem isn’t hurricane debris from Hurricane Wilma that hit the island last October.

The compliance division is focusing on contractors that work for homeowners and businesses.

The Marco Island City Code states that landscape and lawn maintenance contractors can operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Regulations will include that the contractors must register with the city if they are working on the island. The process will be similar to building contractors registering with the city to pull a permit.

“We’ll have a way of identifying all of the contractors,” said Bob Devlin, Marco Island zoning technician.

“That also helps us combat unlicensed contractors if they are here working,” Wardle added.

Some contractors suggested that the city give them stickers to put on the windshields of their work vehicles that would identify them as registered contractors for the city.

“That would help in the event of another hurricane – to get them back on the island sooner so they could start helping with the cleanup,” Wardle said.