Monroe County Code, (Ord. No. 42-2001, §§ 1--3; Ord. No. 031-2002, § 2; Ord. No. 020-2003, §§ 4, 5; Ord. No. 005-2005, § 1)

Sec. 5.5-17. Property owners prohibited from allowing vegetation or trees to interfere with vessels traveling upon navigable canals.

(a) Definitions shall apply as provided in Article I of this chapter or as referenced from other chapters as appropriate.

(b) Prohibition on causing or permitting trees to interfere with vessels upon any man-made waterbody. No real property owner may cause, suffer, or permit a tree, trees or other vegetation, to grow, or otherwise extend, from his or her real property into or over a man-made 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 man-made 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 (10) 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 five hundred dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed sixty (60) days or by both fine and imprisonment.

(2) Violations of this section shall also be punished by in chapter 6.3, article I, Monroe County Code, and F.S. ch. 162, or by prosecution before the code enforcement special master as provided prosecution pursuant to the citation and civil infraction procedure of chapter 6.3, article II, Monroe County Code, 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.