St. Lucie Board Slaps $250 Daily Fines on Five Fort Pierce Properties

The St. Lucie County Code Enforcement Board voted Tuesday to impose $250-per-day fines on five properties in Fort Pierce, targeting a trucking company that stripped vegetation without permits and two neighboring homeowners whose crumbling culvert pipes have turned surrounding yards into flood zones.

For residents near those problem properties, the penalties represent something more concrete than regulatory paperwork — failed drainage infrastructure that backs water onto their land every time it rains.

Solomon Trucking Incorporated faces the heaviest exposure, with fines accumulating on three vacant lots on Dickens Street and Bryant Road. The company has been in violation since December after clearing vegetation from the properties without required permits, public records show. Solomon submitted permit applications in July 2025 but never provided the documentation county reviewers needed to process them, leaving the sites in ongoing violation. Maximum penalties on the three lots range from $5,000 to $10,000.

Two properties on Birch Drive compounded a single block's drainage problems. Crystal Ramos and Megan Lang at 5211 Birch Drive face a maximum fine of $8,000, while Lydia M. and Rosando Zuniga at 5209 Birch Drive could owe up to $20,000. Code enforcement officer Josh Guevara testified that St. Lucie County's water quality department contacted both households about the failed culvert pipes roughly a year before the hearing. Neither owner responded.

The board also set compliance deadlines for two other cases rather than imposing immediate fines. ZNR Auto Sales, which operates a dealership on U.S. Highway 1 in Fort Pierce, has until May 1, 2026, to remove unpermitted fencing from its property. John Edwards, whose Prima Vista Boulevard property in Port St. Lucie became overgrown, received an April 15, 2026, deadline. Edwards attributed the overgrowth to poor soil conditions left behind by city utility work.

A disputed culvert case was continued until the April 1 hearing, giving that property owner time to clear debris and potentially challenge the county's violation finding. Several other cases were removed from the agenda entirely after property owners corrected violations before the hearing.

Property owners cited by the code board who miss their compliance deadlines face fines that compound daily, with total penalties certified as liens against the property.

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