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/o,A,[t-, <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />FROM: Dylan Reingold, County Attorney <br />DATE: May 11, 2022 <br />SUBJECT: Irrigation Ordinance <br />BACKGROUND. <br />On February 15, 2022, the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners ("Board") voted to <br />support adopting a local irrigation ordinance based upon the St. Johns River Water Management District <br />model ordinance, which is attached. The model ordinance includes landscape irrigation schedule <br />requirements for hours and applications amounts for both daylight savings time and standard time and for <br />residential and non-residential landscapes. The model ordinance includes exceptions and waivers in <br />certain circumstances. <br />The model ordinance contained recommendations for enforcement and penalties, noting that local <br />governments could remove or modify these provisions. The Board further directed the County Attorney's <br />Office to draft the ordinance, which would apply in the unincorporated areas of Indian River County, with <br />an enforcement structure with a written warning for the first violation, a $50 fine for the second violation <br />and a $100 fine for subsequent violations. <br />On May 3, 2022, the Board conducted a public hearing on the ordinance. The Board presented two <br />changes to the model ordinance language. The first would be to change daylight savings/standard time <br />designations to month designations. The second was to define "new landscaping". As these are changes <br />to the model ordinance language, the Board continued the public hearing until May 17th to give time for <br />the County Attorney's Office to communicate with the St. Johns River Water Management District <br />concerning the two changes. The Board further discussed a change to the penalties provision, which <br />would allow a second violation to be extinguished, assuming there are no further violations, after a year <br />and a subsequent violation to extinguish two years after the first violation, assuming there are no <br />violations during that two year period. <br />St. Johns River Water Management District staff has examined the issue and due to the St. Johns River <br />Water Management District rule is unable to support either modification from the model ordinance at this <br />time. Thus, the County Attorney's Office has modified the draft ordinance only to reflect the changes to <br />the penalties provision. <br />148 <br />