LANTANA, Florida — It began as a seemingly trivial local code dispute over where to park a car and then snowballed into a fierce legal battle with massive financial implications for one South Florida woman and chilling implications for homeowners across America.
Zenaida “Sandy” Martinez is a lifelong Lantana resident. She’s been ordered to pay more than $100,000 in outstanding municipal fines after the Florida Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal last month. The decision leaves intact a cascade of penalties levied against her by the city for what she and supporters describe as minor code infractions that spiraled into ruinous debt.
Martinez’s ordeal began in February 2021 when the City of Lantana, a small municipality on Florida’s Atlantic coast, cited her for having two tires of her car partially on her lawn. Apparently, it’s a violation of local code. According to court records and filings by the Institute for Justice (IJ), the nonprofit public interest law firm representing Martinez, she and her family sometimes struggled to park all four household vehicles completely off the grass in the tight space of her driveway.
Under Lantana’s enforcement regime, this parking violation carried a fine of $250 per day. When the fines were applied for 407 consecutive days, Martinez’s parking penalty alone ballooned to more than $100,000. In addition, the city assessed another $60,000+ in fines for two unrelated cosmetic code violations at her property. Altogether, her liabilities now total well over $165,000. For Martinez, that’s roughly four times her annual income…