Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/293799
On a unanimous vote April 9, the Sarasota County Commission approved a revised ordi nance declaring graffiti a public nuisance and prohibiting it on private property. No one addressed the board during a pub lic hearing before the vote was taken. Commissioner Carolyn Mason made the motion to approve the ordinance changes, adding, "Let's get 'er done." At the recommendation of staff, property owners first will be contacted with a request to remove graffiti from a site, a memo to the commission explains. If voluntary compliance does not result, "then staff may utilize the Special Magistrate process and/or immediate abatement process in which a contractor will be hired to remove or obscure the graffiti," the memo adds. The revised ordinance dealing with the mat ter includes new language saying, "Graffiti is an aesthetic blight that adversely affects and impairs the value of neighboring properties, and otherwise threatens the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Sarasota County." The law describes graffiti as "any inscrip tion, word, figure, design, painting, sticker, adhesive, writing, drawing or carving that is marked, etched, scratched, drawn, painted, or otherwise applied to public or private property without the prior authorization of the owner of the property regardless of the graffiti content, or nature of the material used in the commission of the act, or the material of the property." A J a n . 4 , 2 0 1 3 , m e m o t o t h e C o u n t y Commission from Tom Polk, director of planning and development services, pointed out that the county had no ordinance that addressed graffiti on private property; there fore, "we don't have a direct enforcement mechanism in this regard." Rachel Brown Hackney COUNTY COMMISSION APPROVES NEW GRAFFITI ORDINANCE Graffiti is visible on a section of the new Q condominiums under construction in Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota. Photo by Robert Hackney Sarasota News Leader April 11, 2014 Page 73