Sex Offenders and Predators Residency Prohibition

City of Marco Island Ordinance Section 18-200 serves the city's compelling interest to promote, protect and improve the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the city by creating areas around locations where children regularly gather and can be stalked or observed in concentrated numbers wherein certain sexual offenders and sexual predators are prohibited from establishing temporary or permanent residence.

Key elements of the ordinance include:

Prohibits a registered sex offender or sexual predator from living within 2,500 feet of any school, child-care facility, park, playground or public school-bus stop. (See below map)

Places responsibility on a landlord or owner of a property to ensure a person seeking to rent or lease a residence is not a sexual offender. It requires landlords to apply reasonable due diligence to determine if a person falls into that category. Failure to do so will be a code-enforcement violation and violators will be cited under the city of Marco Island Code Compliance Ordinance.

Ordinance 15-05 applies to both temporary and permanent residences. Temporary is defined as a place where the person abides, lodges or resides for 14 or more days during any calendar year and is not the person's permanent address, or a place where the person routinely abides, lodges or resides for four or more consecutive or nonconsecutive days in any month and which is not the person's permanent residence.

Any person who meets the definition of a sexual offender or sexual predator, already having an established permanent residence on Marco Island is exempt from the ordinance, but would be regulated by Ordinance 15-05 if they change residences within the City.

Any person who was a minor when their offense was committed, however and was not convicted as an adult is exempt.

Violation of Ordinance 15-05 includes a maximum fine of $500 and / or imprisonment for up to 60 days. Ordinance 15-05 does not supersede any current or future reporting requirements (residence, email, etc.) placed upon sexual offender or sexual predators.

Sec. 18-200. - Sexual offender and sexual predator residency prohibition.