§ 26-4. Property owners prohibited from allowing vegetation or trees to interfere with vessels traveling upon navigable canals.

(a)

Definitions. Definitions shall apply as provided in this article or as referenced from other chapters as appropriate.

(b)

Prohibition on causing or permitting trees to interfere with vessels upon any manmade water body. No real property owner may cause, suffer, or permit a tree, trees or other vegetation, to grow, or otherwise extend, from his real property into or over a manmade water body in such a way or manner as to constitute a navigational hazard to, or to interfere with, vessels engaged in a journey or ride upon the manmade water body. It shall be presumed that vegetation extending from the shoreline of a manmade water body beyond the approximate mean low water mark by more than ten percent of the overall perpendicular width of the water body at the point of measurement constitutes a navigational hazard. This presumption is aligned with the permitted limits for the construction of docking facilities in the land development regulations.

(c)

Penalties for violation.

(1)

Pursuant to F.S. § 125.69(1), violations of this section shall be prosecuted in the same manner as misdemeanors are prosecuted. Such violation shall be prosecuted in the name of the state in a court having jurisdiction of misdemeanors by the prosecuting attorney thereof and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $500.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 60 days or by both fine and imprisonment.

(2)

Violations of this section shall also be punished as in section 8-4, and F.S. ch. 162, or by prosecution before the code enforcement special magistrate as provided prosecution pursuant to the citation and civil infraction procedure in chater 8, article II, and F.S. ch. 162.

(3)

This section may also be enforced through any lawful procedure or process available to the county for the enforcement of its ordinances, including by way of illustration and not limitation, suits for injunctive relief.

(Code 1979, § 5.5-17; Ord. No. 42-2001, §§ 1—3; Ord. No. 031-2002, § 2; Ord. No. 020-2003, §§ 4, 5; Ord. No. 005-2005, § 1)