Boynton tries kinder, gentler code enforcement approach
City focuses on talking to residents, teaching them about regulations.
BOYNTON BEACH — An overgrown yard attracted Courtney Cain to the house in Golfview Harbour. Well, that, and a car parked outside without a tag. That’s one and two code violations.
Cain parked on the side of the road, grabbed his clipboard and camera and walked up to the front door. He was prepared to place a door hanger on the knob to let the homeowners know he found some problems, until they greeted him.
Evelyn Trotter said she recently had surgery on her arm and didn’t want to hear the noise of the lawn mower, but had someone scheduled to come in a few days. And that tag? Someone stole it. She and her husband Jim already reported it to city police.
The violations would be fixed soon, the couple told Cain, an outreach coordinator with the city’s community standards department. Without a written violation, and without any confrontation, Cain continued on his way.
“In the past, we wouldn’t knock on the door. We’d just do it from the road, write it up and send them a violation letter right away,” said Cain, who has worked for Boynton for nearly 24 years.
Instead of starting with that violation letter, which immediately starts the clock ticking, the city recently added a first step of reaching out to the homeowners. A violation is only issued if the homeowner doesn’t respond or fix the violation within a certain amount of time. If the violation notice is ignored, the case continues to a code hearing. The change is part of an overhaul of the code compliance department, now called community standards.
The new direction came after the cit y hired a consultant to find a way to update the department. Now it’s all about com-