LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Trash, tires, semi-trucks and more can be found throughout Lehigh Acres on empty lots and in yards.
Those instances violate County Ordinance 93-39 which prohibits garbage, inoperable vehicles, or abandoned property on private property that causes an annoyance.
Lee County Code Enforcement works with the Lee County Sheriff's Office and Solid Waste to enforce the code in unincorporated districts across the county.
Find out what Lee County Code Enforcement investigates for here.
Derek Felder, who lives in Lehigh Acres, grew frustrated with the situation. So, he asked his neighbors on Facebook what they were seeing. His post received hundreds of responses.
"Everyone that lives in Lehigh knows that there are many code enforcement issues in this area," Felder said.
Watch to see the type of trash dumped in Lehigh Acres:
He believes the existing rules aren't being adequately enforced.
"Rules in place and if they are, it should be enforced, and they should be followed," Felder said.
A heat map made by Lee County shows Lehigh Acres as a giant red spot, indicating where they see the most illegal dumping so far this year.
Felder took his concerns directly to county commissioners in an email before they discussed the issue at an April meeting.
Assistant County Manager Marc Mora acknowledged the problem and said in January, the county added two code enforcement officers specifically for Lehigh Acres.
"Caseload is extremely high with the hearing examiner and cases are taking months before they're heard, so I think we'll have data to support whether or not to increase fines is actually treating compliance or not soon," Mora said.
Lee County shared the below Code Enforcement Activity Summary with Fox 4.
It shows in 2024, 48% of all code violations in Lee County were in Lehigh Acres. Also, it said, Lehigh Acres has the highest number of commercial vehicle citations and violations in the county.
In response to the summary, Felder said, "They are doing more work, but is it enough?," Felder asked.
"You show me the numbers. You're doing stuff, but it's still not enough. We see it in the community. It's still. There's violations everywhere," Felder said.
While Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades was in the area, she saw a code enforcement team removing truck tires from a lot on Lee Boulevard.
Felder believes hiring another hearing examiner to address violations could expedite the process.
He said he wants more enforcement to, "Try to bring the Lehigh community up to a level of standard of living that we all deserve and so that people don't reference to Lehigh as third world country and the armpit of Lee County."
Lee County did not respond when asked if people in Lehigh Acres could expect to see more code enforcement officers in the area.
Find out how to report a code enforcement violation here.
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