Miami Springs’ ‘nuisance board’ tackles drugs and prostitution
Eight years after creating a red-light district, the three-square-mile city of Miami Springs has proposed a ‘nuisance’ ordinance to rein in drug dealing and prostitution.
“This ordinance is about truly egregious activity that falls under criminal aspects of the law,” Miami Springs City Attorney Haydee Sera said.
The Miami Springs City Council voted 5-0 to approve the ordinance on first reading, last month, and create a Nuisance Abatement Board that will preside over civil disturbances brought to its attention, officials said.
“A public nuisance means any place or premises that has been used on more than two occasions, within a six-month period, as the site of a violation of Section 796.07, Florida Statutes, entitled ‘prohibiting prostitution and related acts,’” the ordinance says.
Aside from prostitution, other nuisances listed in the nine-page ordinance include drug sales, drug activity and dealing in stolen property.
“Any city employee, city officer, or any city resident may file a written complaint regarding a public nuisance with the city police department on a form prescribed by the city,” says the ordinance.
Upon determining that a nuisance exists, Miami Springs police will issue property owners a five-day notice to “abate,” officials said. If the improper behavior continues, violators must appear before the nuisance board.
If found to be in violation of the ordinance, officials said violators face fines of $250 per day if “the board finds that the public nuisance existed.” Repeat violators face $500-per-day fines, not to exceed a total of $15,000.
In 2013, the Miami Springs City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that allows sex shops, “lap dances,” “bondage” and “humiliating activities” in its Abraham Tract business district, near Miami International Airport. The “adult” zone ordinance defines permitted “specified sexual activities” that include “fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttock, anus, or female breast.”
The busy business district has two hotels that serve as emergency shelters for about 200 homeless persons. Last May, Miami Springs police asked the city, which has a population of 14,000, to hire more officers due to a surge in crime that includes robberies, shootings and human trafficking.
Miami Springs officials have also approved an hourly motel, located a few blocks from a strip club, which abuts a large multi-family apartment complex. The hourly motel is less than 500 feet from a school and library.
About 10 years ago, city leaders pushed for rapid hotel expansion along its Northwest 36th Street corridor with pledges it would result in lower property-tax rates.
The three-square-mile, historic city founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss now has 21 hotels. As for taxes, Miami Springs set its property-tax rate at 7.3300 for every $1,000 of taxable home value, last fall, one of the highest in the county.
Last year, cops raided and closed a popular hotel, near the city’s historical museum, “to end the nuisance caused by prolonged criminal activity on the property,” police said.
Along with the nuisance code, Miami Springs has taken other measures to thwart “immoral behavior” that includes building eight-foot fences and blocking streets and sidewalks along a five-block stretch of the city.
Meanwhile, on the city’s northwest end, Miami Springs Mayor Maria Mitchell has lobbied for a $2 million pedestrian bridge that will connect Miami Springs with the Okeechobee Metrorail station, where a large homeless encampment was recently set ablaze and cleared out.
It remains unclear which properties in Miami Springs present nuisances.
“In the last six months, what properties would have met the criteria of a nuisance and what would the nuisance have been?” asked Miami Springs City Councilman Walter Fajet.
A public records request by the Miami Herald seeking a list of properties that meet the city’s nuisance criteria went unfulfilled.
“This issue will come up at the August 9 meeting,” Miami Springs City Clerk Erika Santamaria told the Herald.
The next City Council meeting takes place at 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 9, at 201 Westward Dr.
Theo Karantsalis can be reached at karantsalis@bellsouth.net.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 6:31 AM.