What Sarasota, Bradenton and Manatee Codes Say About Strip Center Exteriors

What Sarasota, Bradenton and Manatee County codes say about strip center exteriors: walls, dumpster areas, parking lots, graffiti and restaurant grease, with links to the code text.

We are a pressure washing company, not lawyers. This is a plain-English summary of public code sections, with links. Ask the city or county, or your attorney, how they apply to your property.

City of Bradenton

Bradenton has adopted the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code^[1] and added its own minimum maintenance standards that apply citywide^[1]. For a strip center, these are the parts that matter most:

• Walls facing streets or public areas. Every such part of the building must be “clean of graffiti, litter, dirt, mildew or other debris”, and painted surfaces must be kept without peeling or chalking^[1].
• Dumpster and trash areas. Private trash receptacle areas must be screened from the public right-of-way and “kept neat and clean in appearance”^[1].
• Parking lots. Parking areas must be kept free of trash and debris, and existing paving and striping kept in good repair and “neat and clean in appearance”^[1].
• Storefront windows. In non-residential buildings, windows must be kept clean and transparent^[1].

Before

After

Left: before. Right: after. A commercial dumpster pad we cleaned. The bins are still full in the after photo; the difference is the pad.

Manatee County

Manatee County’s property maintenance standards require all property and premises to be “maintained in a clean, safe, secure, and sanitary condition”, and all exterior property areas to be free from any nuisance condition^[2]. The code lists graffiti among those nuisance conditions^[2], and it requires all exterior surfaces of a building to be maintained in good condition^[2].

City of Sarasota

In the City of Sarasota, the owner, a manager or agent for the owner, or whoever is in possession or control of the property must remove or effectively obscure graffiti within ten days of receiving notice from the city^[3]. If it is not done, the city can remove or cover it, charge the owner for the cost, and sue to recover that cost with attorney’s fees^[3]. Our graffiti removal before and after shows a real job.

Sarasota County

Sarasota County’s code declares graffiti on private land a public nuisance that must be remedied by the property owner, and makes it subject to immediate abatement by the county^[4]. A notice of public nuisance gives the owner a reasonable period of time to correct it, set by the code enforcement officer based on factors such as the severity of the violation and how easy it is to correct^[4].

Restaurant tenants and grease

Most shopping plazas have at least one restaurant, and grease is what turns a dumpster pad dark and slick. The local grease programs are aimed at the restaurants themselves:

• Sarasota County. As of January 1, 2020, regulated businesses must operate effective grease traps and interceptors^[5]. The county’s best practices include emptying yellow grease containers before they are full to avoid spilling, and “never dump or wash anything into the stormwater system”^[5].
• City of Bradenton. Any discharge, overflow or spill that leaves the grease interceptor or sanitary sewer because of improper maintenance is a violation, and the business owner must notify the state Division of Hotels and Restaurants within 24 hours^[6].
• Manatee County. The county has run a fats, oils and grease control program since 2016 under its Sewer Use Ordinance, focused mainly on commercial food service facilities^[7].

What this means for a plaza owner

• Walk the property like a code inspector would. Look at the walls that face the street, the dumpster enclosures, the parking lot and the storefront windows.
• Move fast on graffiti. In the City of Sarasota the clock is ten days from notice.
• Talk to restaurant tenants about grease. Spills at the dumpster pad are easier to prevent than to clean.
• Keep wash water out of the storm drains. Our wash water guide covers the local rules.

Walls, dumpster pads, parking lots and storefront walkways are the core of our shopping plaza exterior cleaning in Sarasota and Manatee County. For the walls that face the street, see our commercial building washing in Sarasota. For lots and garages, see our parking lot pressure washing in Sarasota. Both are part of our commercial pressure washing in Sarasota. See also our guide to strip center walkways and slip hazards.

Sources

1. City of Bradenton Code, Ch. 18, Art. IX, Property Maintenance (Secs. 18-240 and 18-242)
2. Manatee County Code, Ch. 2-9, Art. VI, Property Maintenance Standards (Secs. 2-9-103, 2-9-105, 2-9-106)
3. City of Sarasota Code, Sec. 21-45, Removal of graffiti
4. Sarasota County Code, Ch. 54, Art. XV, Real Property Conditions (Secs. 54-473 and 54-476)
5. Sarasota County: Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) Program
6. City of Bradenton Code, Sec. 70-120, Grease prevention program
7. Manatee County: FOG Control Program