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Florida Legislature convenes 2024 session

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News.

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Legislature’s 2024 regular legislative session is underway and the city of Anna Maria already is opposing lawmakers’ latest attempt to preempt vacation rental regulation to the state.

The Legislature’s 60-day regular session began on Jan. 9 and noon of that day was the deadline to file bills for introduction. Feb. 27 will be the final day for regularly scheduled committee meetings and the 60-day legislative session is scheduled to end on March 8.

In addition to proposing and debating new state laws, the Legislature will help craft the annual state budget to be presented to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

VACATION RENTALS

Utilizing the city-owned, city-managed Home Rule Florida website, https://www.homerulefl.com/, the city of Anna Maria has already launched an opposition campaign regarding Senate Bill 280.

SB 280 is the Legislature’s latest attempt to preempt vacation rental regulation to the state and strip Florida cities and counties of those home rule regulatory rights. The Home Rule Florida website provides information concerning legislation and provides already-written opposition letters that can be emailed to several legislators at a time.

Sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, (R-St. Petersburg), SB 280 passed through the Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee on Dec. 13 by a 4-0 vote. Committee Chair Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), Committee Vice-Chair Ed Hooper (R-Palm Harbor) and Senators Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford) and Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island) voted in favor of forwarding SB 280 to the Senate’s Fiscal Policy Committee.

As of Friday afternoon, Jan. 5, a House of Representatives companion bill to SB 280 had not yet been filed. For new state legislation to be enacted, matching bills must successfully pass through the Senate and House and be signed into law by the governor.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

On Dec. 11, City Attorney Becky Vose provided Mayor Dan Murphy and the Anna Maria City Commission with her six-page legal analysis of SB 280.

“To a person not heavily involved in the regulation of vacation rentals, a review of SB 280 could possibly appear to be a reasonable and well-thought-out statutory scheme to standardize the regulation of vacation rentals throughout the state. However, the devil is in the details. As proposed, SB 280 would have devastating results in Anna Maria, and similarly destructive results in other municipalities and counties that have adopted vacation rental regulations similar to those currently in effect in Anna Maria,” Vose stated in her analysis.

“SB 280, in another devastating blow to home rule in Florida, would allow local governments to only impose certain specific regulations on vacation rentals, thereby eliminating the well-thought-out and well-accepted provisions of the currently existing vacation rental ordinance in Anna Maria, as well as similar ordinances in other Florida locations,” Vose stated.

“SB 280 would:

• “Allow virtually unlimited occupancy in vacation rentals due to the provision that allows local governments to cap occupancy only based on the number of ‘sleeping accommodations’ in the vacation rental. This occupancy ‘cap’ is purely illusory since it could allow up to 16 persons to sleep in a 14’ x 14’ bedroom, and who knows how many people in other parts of the vacation rental;

• “Eliminate the ability of the city to conduct annual inspections of vacation rentals for compliance with the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire and Life Safety Codes. Such inspections would only be allowed upon the initial application for registration, or when a registration is changed;

• “Cap the cost of the initial application for registration of a vacation rental at $150, and cap all subsequent renewal fees at $50, thereby transferring the bulk of the cost of regulation and registrations of vacation rentals to the taxpayers of the city;

• “Eliminate the regulation of the number of vehicles at vacation rentals. Since occupancy would essentially be unlimited, parking would likely be a serious problem;

• “Eliminate the ability to require rental agreements and postings at vacation rentals to inform guests of a variety of local issues such as where to park vehicles, sea turtle regulations, solid waste pick up regulations, noise regulations, location of the nearest hospital and what to do in the event of an evacuation order due to a storm;

• “Make illusory the enforcement power of the State of Florida as to cease and desist orders by the state to enforce state requirements,” Vose stated in her analysis.

Reel Time: The elephant in the bay

Reel Time: The elephant in the bay

Written by Rusty Chinnis on . Posted in Awards, Awards 2020, Environment, Fishing, Outdoors, Reel Time, Special Sections, Third Place.

It’s not with any pleasure that I sit down and write an outdoors column on water quality issues and red tide at one of my favorite times of the year. I’d rather be spending this time talking about tarpon, snook, redfish, trout and the plethora of other fish that swim area waters. Unfortunately, there’s an elephant in the bay.

Although area waters are clear again and the red tide is currently absent, we don’t seem to have made any significant progress in addressing the problems that plagued us last year and pose a threat into the future. It’s hard to fathom that after last year’s unprecedented killing field event that featured daily images of dead fish, dolphin, turtles and manatees, policymakers failed to act to address the core problem.

Third Place
Environmental news
2020

In fact, the Florida legislative session that just ended was characterized as “a disaster for our environment,” by the public interest group Florida Conservation Voters. If it takes numbers to convince you, consider the bottom line. This year’s environmental funding is only 0.003 percent more than last year.

This isn’t a red vs. blue issue as major initiatives (blocked by leadership) were advanced from both sides of the aisle. Three of these blocked bills were championed by local politicians Rep. Will Robinson (R-Bradenton), Rep. Margaret Good (D-Sarasota) and Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota).

If you live on or anywhere near the Gulf and are a homeowner, business owner or tourist, last summer’s explosion of red tide and blue-green algae was a blunt wake-up call. At risk is everything we value including our marine environment, quality of life and businesses. Florida Conservation Voters reminds us, “Democracy isn’t a spectator sport; it requires participation to work.” It also cautions that “Legislators regularly sponsor bills that seek to limit, restrict or hinder many of the principals we hold most dear.”

A case in point: This past session a bill was passed by both chambers that would make it much more difficult for voters to exercise their constitutional right to pass a citizen’s imitative. I don’t know about you, but I want to have the ability to pass a ballot initiative if necessary to protect my property, my business and the marine environment that has sustained me for the past three decades.

If there’s a bright spot in this bleak session, it’s another record year for Everglades funding and other associated water quality projects up and down the coasts, funding made possible by the voter-approved 2014 Water and Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment One). Unfortunately, the Legislature once again severely underfunded the state’s most important suite of land conservation programs, commonly referred to as Florida Forever. The leadership decided to spend only $33 million on a program that had received $300 million for decades.

We as citizens of a barrier island surrounded by water cannot afford to let this become yet another out of sight, out of mind event. Legislators are touting the $3 million a year that was allocated to study red tide for the next five years. Those familiar with the causes and effects know that the real answer is to limit the nutrients that fuel severe and extended blooms.

Unfortunately, interests opposed to addressing the root cause because of financial impacts continue to sway legislators. Meanwhile, the blooms are more frequent and severe and will cost us far more in the future for our failure to act now in any significant way. While the bay and Gulf have a remarkable ability to recover, my three-plus decades point to a diminishing resource that’s less resilient and taking much longer to recover than in the past.

The bottom line is that we have too much at stake to hope for a good result. We all need to lobby our legislators to resist the special interests for which the bottom line is today and next year. They were elected to serve the residents who live, work and raise families here.  There’s an elephant in the bay, one we can’t wish away. Let’s all work together to protect this special place we call home.

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Commissioner shares thoughts on 2019 legislative session

Commissioner shares thoughts on 2019 legislative session

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria, Community News.

ANNA MARIA – On Sunday, May 12, Anna Maria Commissioner Carol Carter provided an email recap of the Florida Legislature’s recently-concluded 2019 legislative session.

“We can breathe a sigh of relief. The 2019 legislative session ended and we are ‘safe’ for another year. Attempts by various legislators to pre-empt home rule of short-term rentals failed. Thanks to all of you who emailed, phoned and wrote letters to committee members – it worked,” Carter wrote.

Failed bills

Senate Bill 1720 sought to expand the scope of Bert Harris claims, but it died without a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee and never progressed any further. Its companion bill in the House, HB 1383, passed through three House committees, but without a Senate companion died before it ever reached the House floor for a final vote.

“These bills attempted to expand the Bert Harris Act and would have created a universal application if a city granted a variance to the private property rights of any one property that variance would have applied to all ‘similarly situated’ properties,” Carter wrote.

“There were also two other pre-emptive bills you helped kill this session: SB 824 and its companion, HB 987,” Carter wrote.

These bills were another attempt by the state Legislature to preempt the regulation of vacation rentals to the state and take that authority away from Florida cities and counties. Adoption of these bills would have rendered null and void Anna Maria’s vacation rental ordinance, as well as the vacation rental ordinances adopted in Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach.

“Thankfully, SB 824 was never heard in Senate committee. It was frightening that HB 987 quickly cleared all its committees, but without its companion bill, it too died,” Carter wrote.

Thank you

Carter thanked Senate President Bill Galvano, Senator Joe Gruters and Representative Will Robinson. The three state legislators from the Bradenton-Sarasota area met separately with Carter and Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy in Tallahassee on March 20.

“All three understood our plea to ‘Let Cities Work’ and allow home rule to be effective. Thanks also to our lobbyist in Tallahassee, Chip Case, who did all the behind-the-scenes work for us in Tallahassee and set up the March 20 meetings,” Carter wrote.

It’s not over

“Those who wish to eliminate our home rule rights will be back lobbying in Tallahassee again next year. The three Anna Maria Island cities plan to take a proactive stance prior to the 2020 legislative session,” Carter wrote.

She mentioned creating “thumb-drive videos” that show the impact of short-term rentals and the effectiveness of the local home rule efforts that in Anna Maria include annual inspections and the mandatory registration of short-term rentals.

Carter’s email expressed her belief that these local efforts help protect the health and safety of visitors and residents alike.

Related coverage

Local vacation rental regulations under fire again