FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
                (941) 335-2777

FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 8, 2001) – Lee County has established a Nuisance Abatement Board ("the board") that will have the power to close down businesses that harbor illegal activities such as drug sales, prostitution and gang activity.

The Board of Lee County Commissioners approved the ordinance establishing the board at a public hearing Tuesday (May 8) night.

The seven-member board will have jurisdiction in unincorporated Lee County and be appointed by the Lee County Commission.

Nuisance Abatement Boards are designed to hear complaints from citizens and law enforcement about establishments and property owners that allow illegal activities to occur on their premises, creating a nuisance for neighbors.

The board will conduct hearings, and if it is determined that on at least three occasions within a 12-month period that a place or premises was the site of an unlawful sale or delivery of controlled substances, prostitution, youth and street gang activity, gambling, illegal sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages, or lewd or lascivious behavior, the Nuisance Abatement Board can find and declare the place or premises to be a public nuisance.

It then has the option of ordering the business to stop the nuisance or shutting down the establishment. If the property owner disagrees with the board’s decision, the owner has the right to appeal the order to Circuit Court.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office requested several months ago that the county establish the board. The City of Fort Myers also has a similar board.