REDINGTON SHORES, Fla. — Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged hundreds of homes in Redington Shores and Redington Beach, two nearby beach towns in Pinellas County.
Neighbors say those storms made existing problems caused by chronic code violators even worse, hurting their quality of life and bringing down their property values.
Watch full report from Adam Walser
“When you come in off Gulf Blvd. into this particular neighborhood, you have to go through a very blighted area,” said Bennett Walling, one of four Redington Shores neighbors who spoke with the I-Team about their concerns related to junk and overgrown yards in their neighborhood.
“You can’t have junk”
Walling’s home is a short walk from the beach.
It is on a street with canal-front homes worth over a million dollars.
Some neighbors are still recovering after Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged their homes nine months ago.
But Walling doesn’t think that’s an excuse for some of his neighbors ignoring municipal codes regarding appearances.
He believes the town has not cracked down hard enough on violators.
“You can’t have junk. You can’t have old, abandoned vehicles, abandoned boats, abandoned trailers, trash. All that stuff is clearly in the code, and they’ve clearly allowed that to persist,” Walling said.
He said he has been writing to town commissioners about the problem since last summer, but it was only made worse by the hurricanes.
“It’s way worse now. Much worse than it was prior,” Walling said.
“It’s a tough situation”
We went to Redington Shores Town Hall and spoke with Building Official Robert Peebles.
He spoke to us about code enforcement efforts for both Redington Beach and Redington Shores.
“It’s a tough situation and we do our best to stay on top of it, notify folks when there are issues, track the problems, and try to get them resolved,” Peebles said.
Peebles says the towns have tried to be sensitive to residents whose property was damaged, especially those who were uninsured.
“We’re trying to strike a balance between what’s best for the residents and what’s best for the town,” Peebles said.
In some cases, the answer is clear and the town has had to take quick and decisive action.
“Rats bring disease and they bring snakes”
Peebles showed us a video a resident sent showing more than a dozen rats jumping around on tree limbs in front of an abandoned home in Redington Beach.
He said the yard had knee-high grass, and there was a broken window allowing rats to go in and out of the house.
“Rats bring disease. And they bring snakes. And they bring problems for the whole neighborhood,” Peebles said.
Peebles said code enforcement took immediate enforcement action, requiring the owners to board up the broken window and mow the yard.
He said those owners, like many in the beach community, reside somewhere else.
“Maybe they don’t stay here 12 months out of the year. Some of them are rental situations,” Peebles said.
Walling said that’s the case when some of the violators in his neighborhood.
“We have a lot of seasonal residents and some of them don’t even have yard maintenance for when they’re not here,” he said.
Walling said some owners only have their yards mowed after receiving citations, but don't maintain them, causing the same problem months later.
“We’re working on it”
Redington Shores and Redington Beach opened 140 combined nuisance cases so far in 2025 related to tall grass and weeds.
That’s about one case for every ten homes.
“Previous commission meetings, residents have shown up and they’re complaining that we’re out there citing people for these problems. It's a no-win situation,” Peebles said.
Peebles said Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies were called last week when a code enforcement officer was attacked by an angry resident.
That man was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Neighbors say they don’t want code enforcement officers facing danger but believe it’s important that they more aggressively address the growing problem before it gets worse.
“It makes me want to move to an area where people take pride in their property,” Walling said.
Peebles said the town has caught up on issuing a backlog of building permits and plans to focus more on bringing violators into compliance.
“A little bit of patience. We're on it. We’re working on it,” he said.
Walling says he and others are even willing to volunteer to help non-compliant neighbors clean up their messes.
“We're here to help. But we need the city to step in and follow their own laws,” he said.
Walling says neighbors plan to address the issue with elected leaders at the next town commission meeting later this month.
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