Bonita Springs, FL Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 10-96 of the Bonita Springs City Code is the building-blight rule for residential property. Subsection (a) bars any landowner or person owning, leasing, operating or having control of residential property in the city from maintaining, keeping or permitting a nuisance, and subsection (b) lists the conditions declared to be a public nuisance. Four of them concern the building itself.

Abandoned buildings are a nuisance under (b)(2), but a building that is unoccupied and otherwise in compliance with the article is not deemed abandoned. Boarded-up buildings are a nuisance under (b)(3) unless the boards are temporary hurricane protection removed within 30 days. An owner can also board up an unoccupied building for hurricane protection during hurricane season, as defined by the National Weather Service, if the material is painted, stained or otherwise coated to match or complement the exterior color of the building. Partially destroyed buildings that are neither rebuilt nor demolished within a reasonable period of time, considering the extent of the destruction and the size of the building, are a nuisance under (b)(4). Under (b)(5), partially constructed buildings not completed within a customary construction period based on their size, or for which building permits have expired, are also a nuisance.

Other items in the same list reach blight indirectly: a condition or use that causes a substantial diminution of value of property in the vicinity, an attractive nuisance dangerous to children such as excavations or untended and unfenced swimming pools, and overt blocking of drainage swales or pipes. Section 10-93(d)(1) allows damaged storefront windows to be boarded up for a reasonable temporary period not to exceed 30 days while repairs are arranged. The International Property Maintenance Code adopted in Section 10-77(15) also specifically adopts Appendix A, the Boarding Standard.

Enforcement runs through Section 10-103, which authorizes the county sheriff's office and the city code enforcement manager, and directs the city manager or designee to receive complaints and give notice to affected property owners.