TREASURE ISLAND — A stepped-up code enforcement campaign has more than doubled the number of cases the city has taken before its special magistrate, and newly acquired software will help the city identify illegal tourist rentals in neighborhoods where they are banned, City Manager Charles Van Zant told commissioners.
The campaign is targeting abandoned houses, dilapidated property and owners who made unpermitted repairs to substantially damaged homes. Some of the illegal rentals, Van Zant said, are owned by businesses that operate multiple properties on the island, and the software should let the city bring those cases forward with clearer evidence.
Enforcement was largely dormant before the storms, Van Zant said.
“Code enforcement in the city of Treasure Island, to the best I could ascertain, has historically been not a whole lot,” he said. “Maybe (there was) not a whole lot of need for it prior to the storms.”
That changed in October 2025, when James Dixon took over as code compliance supervisor, the city manager said. Dixon’s team has brought more cases before the Code Enforcement Board and the special magistrate in the first nine months of this fiscal year than in the previous four or five years combined, he said.
A chart Van Zant presented showed the city has opened 349 code cases and closed 748 under the heightened campaign. Cases taken to a special magistrate rose to 52 since October 2025, compared with 24 from 2021 through September 2025.
The city also issued 514 residential building permits and 366 nonresidential permits from January through June.
Commissioner Chris Clark said he continues to hear positive feedback about permitting “because that was our biggest issue.”
Van Zant said the city is “actively identifying and processing properties where repairs were completed without permits.”
“This remains a top priority to ensure compliance with FEMA substantial (damage) rules, to protect the city in the National Flood Insurance Program, thereby safeguarding eligibility for federal grants and flood relief funding,” he said.
The city has also moved ahead with a condemnation ordinance, and Van Zant said he expects to bring at least one property to the commission under it soon. The proposal would give the city clearer authority to declare severely damaged structures that have seen little or no repair unfit and unsafe, allowing officials to abate them through legal channels.
On short-term rentals, Dixon said the newly acquired software flags how many times a property changes occupants over a 12-month period without relying on internet listings or reviews. That data, he said, provides “a more robust package to allow the special magistrate to make a more factual determination” in the RU-75 and RM-15 zoning districts, where tourist dwellings are prohibited.
A preliminary review, Dixon said, found “there’s a surplus of them.”
Clark asked whether the city was aware that some individuals and businesses own as many as 14 homes that were repaired without permits.
“Commissioner, that’s correct. We’ve identified businesses that do have a portfolio of residences on Treasure Island,” Dixon said. “We’ve worked with the property owner, and or their representative, to itemize these code violations to make sure they are coming into compliance before we initiate law enforcement. We have a couple going through right now that we’re monitoring.”
Van Zant thanked commissioners for finishing “some codes that didn’t quite get us to the finish line — to do liens, admin fees, things like that, condemnation, so we have a good amount of rolling fines going on, and we’re maintaining compliance within the (National Flood Insurance Program).”
Commissioner Arden Dickey asked how much of that money the city actually collects.
“If it’s homesteaded, we can’t collect until the property changes hands,” Van Zant said. “If they come in and settle their bill, it’s paid. ... It ends up going into the general revenue fund once it’s collected.”
Dixon said the city has collected on one lien so far. Certifying a lien starts a 90-day clock before the city can take its next enforcement step, he said, and unpaid rolling fines generally must be settled when a property changes owners.
“These fines are in place for a property owner to get into compliance,” he said.
Property owners can appeal and ask the City Commission to reduce a lien, Dixon said, but a $350 administrative fee approved in the city’s most recent ordinance is collected regardless of any reduction.
Dickey, noting a request on the agenda for two additional code enforcement officers, asked whether hiring them would bring in more revenue. Dixon said the administrative fee “would help supplement additional staff.”
Clark said the city cannot count on the money.
“Theoretically every single person that gets a fine could refuse to pay it, and we could slap a lien on every single one of their homes, and then we would never get the money in that case, until there was a change of ownership or something else, right?” he said. “You can’t really predict who’s going to pay and who’s not.”
Van Zant said the city has another option.
“If they continually don’t pay, then we can move to foreclose unless it’s homesteaded,” he said. “Approximately 40% of our homes in Treasure Island are homesteaded, so you’ve got 60% that you could go after. It would take a solid commitment from the commission. I’m not advocating foreclosing people’s homes, but there is a way to squeeze a turnip.”