Lee County, FL Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

The John S. military conflicts from the Native-American Wars through Operation Iraqi Freedom. Section 15-20 defines a covered "monument or memorial" as any statue, nameplate, plaque or artistic rendering created in remembrance of a person or event tied to the Armed Forces, and limits the rule to "public property," meaning real property Lee County owns or leases. Section 15-21(a) bars relocating, removing, disturbing, altering, renaming or rededicating any such item once it sits on county land. A companion clause, Section 15-21(b), separately protects pictures, historic flag displays, schools, streets, bridges, buildings, parks, preserves and reserves named for a military figure, event, organization or unit from being renamed or rededicated, though it does not bar their relocation.

Routine maintenance, repair or restoration by the government agency responsible for the site is exempted under Section 15-21(c). Anyone wanting to move or alter a covered monument must file a written petition with the Lee County Commission stating the reasons, per Section 15-23; the Commission can grant the waiver with conditions at any regularly scheduled meeting, but there is no staff-level approval path. Willfully destroying, mutilating, defacing, injuring or removing a protected monument is punished under the general penalty section, Section 1-7, rather than a penalty written into this article itself.

The ordinance took effect January 6, 2015, under Ordinance No. 15-01, and Section 15-24 directs that where it conflicts with another county rule, the more restrictive provision controls.