ANNA MARIA – Local governments, including those on Anna Maria Island, are in danger of losing their ability to regulate short-term vacation rentals at the local level.
Using a contracted lobbyist and the city-owned Home Rule Florida website, the city of Anna Maria is at the forefront of the statewide opposition to the Florida Legislature’s efforts to preempt short-term vacation rental regulations to the state; and specifically, to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) that already requires short-term vacation rentals to be registered with the state.
On April 27, the Florida Senate adopted by a 28-10 margin the final amended version of Senate Bill 714. Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton) and Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota) supported SB 714.
The matching and accompanying House bill, HB 833, is scheduled for a final vote of the House members this week. During a previous committee stop, State Rep. Will Robinson Jr. (R-Bradenton) supported the bill.
If the House joins the Senate in adopting the proposed legislation, the matching bills will be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the legislation or sign it into new state law that would take effect July 1.
The state preemption of vacation rental regulation would apply to short-term vacation rentals, also known as transient public lodging establishments, rented for less than 30 days more than three times a year, or advertised as such.
Commission concerns
During the Anna Maria Commission’s April 27 meeting, Mayor Dan Murphy referenced a late amendment made to SB 714 before the Senate adopted it.
The amended Senate bill would allow a local government to suspend, terminate or refuse to issue or renew a locally-issued vacation rental registration if the vacation rental premises, owner or operator has been found by a local code enforcement board to have violated a registration requirement.
The registration could also be suspended if two more violations of a local law or regulation that does not apply solely to vacation rentals occur within a 90-day period. This would include noise ordinance violations. The local government would be required to first issue a written warning or notice and provide the rental owner or management company the opportunity to cure the violations before suspending or terminating the rental registration.
“It’s a glimmer of hope. You could suspend a vacation rental registration for two violations of noise, two violations of our code over a 90-day period,” Murphy said.
A vacation rental registration could also be revoked if a city or county lien has been placed on a vacation rental property and the lien remains unpaid and unaddressed.
Murphy planned to meet with City Attorney Becky Vose the following day to get a better understanding of how these amendments would impact the city’s vacation rental enforcement efforts if the legislation is enacted as state law.
With the Senate bill already adopted, and the House bill scheduled for a final vote, Murphy said the city’s best hope may lie with DeSantis vetoing the legislation.
Commissioner Charlie Salem, a former congressional aide, suggested asking the city’s lobbyist to provide the city with a list of DeSantis’ top supporters so the city and its supporters can ask them to encourage the governor to veto the legislation.
“I think the only way we get this vetoed is if the top supporters of his go to him physically and tell him this is a terrible idea,” Salem said.
Potential impacts
The legislation proposed by SB 714 and HB 833 would eliminate or reduce a city’s ability to regulate short-term vacation rental occupancy limits. It would also eliminate or reduce a city’s ability to monitor, enforce and eliminate fraudulent online advertising by advertising platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo and the city’s ability to annually inspect short-term vacation rentals.
The proposed legislation would also cap the annual registration fee imposed by local governments.
According to SB 714, “Local governments may charge a fee of no more than $150 for processing an individual registration application or $200 for processing a collective registration application for up to a total of 25 individual vacation rentals.”
The city of Anna Maria currently imposes occupancy-based registration fees that range from $336 per year for a vacation rental that allows four occupants, $1,010 for vacation rental that allows 12 occupants and $2,440 for a vacation rental that allows 29 occupants.
During the current fiscal year, Anna Maria’s registration fees are expected to produce approximately $415,000 in annual revenues for the city. Registration revenues are only supposed to be used to enforce the city’s vacation rental ordinance. Those revenues fund code enforcement officers and vehicles, annual inspections, monitoring of online advertising platforms and the administrative and legal costs associated with enforcing the city’s vacation rental ordinance.
Opposition efforts
On Saturday and Sunday, the Home Rule Florida website issued email calls to action to its subscribers. The emails and the website note HB 833 is headed to the House of Representatives for a final vote.
“Nobody wants to live next door to a ‘Party House’ and this bill allows Airbnb, Vrbo and any other vacation rental marketing platform to cram as many people into a house as they see fit! The bill waters down, and in many cases, strips away your local government’s ability to register, inspect, control occupancy or regulate false advertising in the burgeoning vacation rental industry. Please let the House of Representatives know how you feel by sending an email to them. Join your neighbors in opposing this bill,” the email says.
The email letter template posted at the Home Rule Florida website for immediate distribution to the House members echoes those sentiments.
The 2023 legislative session is scheduled to end on Friday, May 5.
