It’s the last nine years’ clock-work: no sooner does the Florida Legislature convene than bills to reduce local governments’ regulatory power over vacation rentals begin moving in committees. For nine years, regulations in Flagler County have survived unscathed even as the vacation-rental industry continues to grow in popularity and clout. Each year, local officials fear that era of local control may be over.
Lawmakers’ attempted regulatory changes this year are different in the details but not in the main. This year three of the most significant proposed changes these: one would lift the occupancy limit on vacation rentals. Currently in Flagler, the limit is for two people per room, 10 per house. Lifting the limit would open the way for “party houses,” as local officials describe it.
Another would reduce the registration fee counties and cities may charge for vacation rentals to $50 per individual rental, or to $100 for “collective licensing.” For example, if a company has 75 vacation rentals under one umbrella, it could register them all for $100, even though all 75 units would still have to be inspected.
Flagler County currently charges $400 for an initial registration and inspection for each individual unit. It charges $200 for the annual renewal, and $50 for a transfer or modification.
A third–a repeat from previous versions–appears to give local governments more authority to control parking, noise and such things as garbage requirements. But the bill states that while local governments may regulate those factors, they may not do so differently than they do private homes, which all but blunts regulation aimed at vacation rentals.
Other changes would shift oversight responsibilities to the state’s Department of Business and professional Regulation, the state agency that oversees hotels and motels. But the agency is overworked and understaffed.
Some of the changes strengthen local authority, such as giving local governments the ability to impose a fine for failure to register a vacation rental.
Senate Bill 714 is sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, a St. Petersburg Republican. The bill has its first hearing today before the Regulated Industries Committee, one of just three bills to be debated. (The bill’s House companion is HB 833. See an analysis of the senate bill here.)
“They’re trying to go after us again, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll be up in tally next week doing our yearly swing up there, as usual that’s one of the things we’ll be looking at,” Flagler County Commissioner Dave Sullivan said today. “There are a lot of things that are anti-local control. This is one of them.”
What’s not clear to local officials is how many of those bills restricting local control have the backing of Rep. Paul Renner, the House Speaker, and Sen. Travis Hutson, both of whom are in their last term. Hutson has previously supported lessening vacation-rental regulations. “We had an update briefing yesterday in our working session in our workshop and we didn’t have an answer on that yet,” Sullivan said.
Flagler County has just over 1,300 locations that would be categorized as short0-term rentals. The number includes hotels, motels, bed and breakfast facilities, campgrounds, as well as what’s customarily known as vacation rentals–the homes dedicated for those accommodations, or the rooms within homes reserved for paying gusts.
Out of that 1,300 figure, more than 1,200 are vacation rentals as customarily understood, so it’s a sizeable business in Flagler County. Any legislative reform would have consequences locally. Of the 1,200-some vacation rentals, 453 were single-family homes dedicated to the business, as of last October; 687 were condos or town houses, 27 were individual rooms within homes, and 18 were duplexes, according to a quarterly report prepared by the Flagler County Tax Collector’s office.
The short-term rentals generate Flagler County’s $4 million in annual tourism-tax revenue. That revenue in turn pays for marketing the county to tourists, it funds capital improvement grants for the county’s tourism infrastructure and cultural venues, and it pays for beach protection.
In the state, there are 4,700 licensed hotels and motels among the 63,700 public lodging establishments that rate as short-term rentals; there are over 19,000 apartments used as vacation rentals, 12,716 condos, and 26,700 stand-alone houses used for the purpose.
The battle lines aren’t what they were nine years ago.
Back then, when Flagler County’s vacation-rental regulations became a model for many other communities, the voices of mom-and-pop home-owners looking to leverage their properties as vacation homes carried emotional force and resonated with property rights advocates. It did so especially when homeowners were battling to keep their homes from foreclosure. As the market has recovered and the vacation-rental industry’s corporate version has become more dominant, the individual homeowner has receded. But the industry has made up in popularity what it lost in emotional punch.
Flagler County before the pandemic would fight the proposed de-regulations in person in Tallahassee. The more Flagler’s two representatives–Hutson and Renner-0-have gained in prominence at the Legislature, the less aggressive has the county’s strategy been, as if to avoid confrontations or retribution from the two lawmakers. Flagler now relies on organizations such as the Florida League of Cities and the state county association to fight the battles.
On Monday, Tara Taggart Chilton, the legislative advocate for the Florida League of Cities, sent a two-page list of concerns about the senate bill to DiCeglie, applauding some additional accountability measures but urging reconsideration of the bill’s reduction of home rule.
“Almost every negative secondary impact seen in residential neighborhoods from short-term rentals
stems from occupancy,” Chilton wrote of the provision that would lift occupancy limits. “The number of people staying in a vacation rental directly impacts the amount of noise, trash produced, and the number of cars in the driveway, on the street, or in the yard.” She suggested that if local governments are prohibited from setting occupancy limits, the state should set a standard.
Chilton is also critical of the registration fee limits. ” We recommend allowing local governments to charge what it costs for them to administer the program,” she wrote. “Additionally, collective registration is not defined in the bill, and it is unclear how many properties would be eligible for collective registration. DBPR currently allows for state collective licensing for up to 75 houses or units at various locations.”
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Angela says
There are a few things that people here need to understand. Losing Home Rule, does not apply only to vacation rentals. Other businesses can pop up on your home’s residential street. Losing Home Rule also means the homeowner has less say, while the business is in control and may sue you, sue your government (taxpayers) should they determine you, or ordinances, had any sort of negative (15%) effect on their business.
Local government will be more vulnerable and have less protection, while big corporations can sue them. HOAs will not be exempt. Local businesses will not be exempt. A small, family owned business was just recently sued by an Airbnb behind the woman’s place of business on Indian Rocks Beach, FL. Her CrossFit Gym was there open and running before the property was even converted into a vacation rental. The short term rental recently sued her for her gym being an annoyance to the property. Airbnb won. If these bills go through, we homeowners, and small business owners, will have even less power.
I wrote before about vacation rentals in the Hammock. What many people did not understand is that I was not writing about the resort at Hammock Dunes, I was writing about the single family neighborhoods not part of the resort. This area is NOT a vacation destination, it’s an area that had been forgotten for decades, and people moved here because it was a quiet, residential area. We have stayed in vacation rentals before. We stayed at Hawk’s Cay Resort, where we checked in at the front desk of the adjoining hotel. We stayed at Palm Island and Kiawah Island, where we also checked in at a front desk. These vacation rentals were not in single family residential zoned areas. That’s fine, it’s expected and it’s monitored.
Also, I disagree, wholeheartedly, that a landowner can do whatever they want with their property. If that were so, we would not have zoning, and ordinances. Zoning helps protect the quality of life in the area, and is supposed to insure that the buildings within conform to that category.
Before a commercial business, short term rental moves in next door to your home, ask yourself the following:
Who is monitoring this front desk-less, commercially defined motel unit? The host who is in charge of 60 units scattered around the country, and communicates by phone text? Should the neighbors have to monitor these units? We are the ones who are present.
Who is monitoring the number of people who show up when the number actually exceeds, and sometimes doubles, the number allowed, when they open the door with a smart phone code, and not a manager?
Who is monitoring the age of the spring breakers, who “check in” with a credit card over the phone? Who’s monitoring the kids, the number of, and age of kids, they bring back to the unit?
Why do these commercial units, in single family residential zoned neighborhoods, not have to conform like other businesses? Examples are ADA compliance, business setbacks, ice machines, retention areas, parking lots and other requirements that other local businesses must comply to.
Who is checking the fishing licenses of transients on docks and waterfront units all around the state? We had to purchase licenses all our lives until we turned 65 years of age. Is Florida losing fishing license revenues?
Registered sex offenders are required to contact the local sheriff’s department only if they stay away from home for more than two days, but do they? Who are these people checking in, where there is no one checking them? There are kids playing in our neighborhoods. The sex offender’s neighborhood is notified of an offenders existence while our neighborhoods are not.
So, if you do not want this next door to you, and you believe your local government knows your area better than the state does, then check HomeruleFl.com
ralph6 says
Local control is good. A state-level of state’s rights.
Refer says
I’m sure u know that seems 2b the direction Flagler Beach Trailer Park is wanting 2go. At the present time there squeezing folks who own trailers out. There was an increase recently putting the lot rent up from 520$ to 685$.That increase is more than what many old timers can afford. I had 2put my place of 12/13yrs.up 4sale. The LLC that has taken over didn’t make that reasonable either. New folks r going 2have a lot rent of 850$.In my eyes a hidden Paradise has turned into a Paradise Lost. When will enough b enough??
Ronald Schrein says
I can’t speak for every short-term rental (Airbnb or VRBO) homeowner, but I can speak to how we handle our rental vs. some long-term rentals that we have had on the streets where we live.
1. We have cameras installed all around the outside of the house and noise sensors inside and out. We contact our renters if we see or hear something that might bother a neighbor.
2. Guests cannot check in until we provide a door code. We observe their arrival on the cameras and count heads to make certain the number of people matches the registration. We screen every person prior to approving the registration. We have never had any of the issues noted in the comments above. We have nice people who are in town for a vacation, a wedding, a family reunion, a bachlorette party, birthdays, trips to Disney, the beach, St. Augustine and other fun occasions.
3. The house is professionally cleaned after every guest leaves. We also inspect the house personally to check for damage, items left behind, check the pool water, clean the barbecue, etc. We also wash all the sheets at our own home because there is rarely enough time between guests leaving and arriving for the housekeepers to do it at the rental house.
4. Our house has to live up to the beautiful pictures we post online at Airbnb’s site. We can’t afford to let the house get rundown and not be take care of. We want it to be the best looking house on the block, inside and out, and it is.
5. The landlord of a long-term rental does not visit every week. The tenant, not being an owner, does not always take good care of the home and the landlord doesn’t find out until they leave. If the landlord wants the tenant evicted, it takes a long time and you have angry tenants doing bad things to the house during that time. None of these things occur with a short-term rental.
We understand why homeowners are not happy and would prefer to have “regular neighbors” living next door or across the street. But we can say unequivocally that we’d much rather have a happy group of people next door for a short visit than a nasty neighbor or a neglectful long-term renter who’s waging a battle with his landlord and damaging the neighborhood.
Angela says
When you state that many of your renters come for birthdays, weddings, family reunions, and bachelorette parties you are describing a gathering/party house. Example: The county states that a two bedroom house may only rent to a maximum of six people. Once your guests exceed six people, your vacation rental is out of compliance. How many birthdays/weddings/reunions/bachelorette parties/celebrations does your regular neighbor have each year? According to the 2020 Census, the average number of people per household is 3.15. Your statement confirms that multiple such occasions happen at your rental year round.
You state that your vacation unit is monitored by cameras and noise recorders. That’s good, and not required. However, I find it hard to believe that you are monitoring the unit 24/7 and knowing who is coming in at all hours after the initial check in. After all, there are admitted gatherings and parties. I also find it unusual that you can tell the nature of a person’s character through a camera lens.
I know of a private marina, with a locked gate, that has three vacation rental boats in it. The combination of the gate is given to a steady stream of strangers.
You claim your renters are all good people. You must be exceptionally lucky as there is a multitude of horror stories on the web, and cities all over the world are working at stronger regulation. Another commercial rental owner stated their renters were mostly retired seniors. Statically, Millennials and Generation Z make up the majority of the vacation renters, and unit owners are encouraged to target market them. This will change the whole outlook of residential neighborhoods.
If these senate bills pass, your number of renters, per house, may increase considerably, further creating a hotel situation, worse even than the motel scenario. STRs are notorious for turning the garage into another bedroom, or dividing the house internally to create more bedrooms, without the knowledge of the local code enforcement. These senate bills will further weaken community rights.
Tell me this: How is it that your rights as a commercially defined vacation rental owner, with a rental located within a single family zoned residential neighborhood, supersede the rights of the homeowners in the same neighborhood?
Chris says
Awesome 😎
Ron says
Once again the vacation rental management industry along with the Florida Realtors Association and some local politicians with business interest are looking to turn back the clock to 2011. This would be trouble for any city, town or county that did not have an ordinance in place prior to June 2011.
In Flagler County we had four bedroom homes advertising occupancy up to 26 people excluding children. It seems investors and vacation management companies did not include children in their occupancy count.
In Flagler County after 2014 our commission was able to create an ordinance. This included inspecting these one family dwellings that operated as transient public lodging establishments for the minimum standards as stated in the Florida Prevention Code. The State never inspected vacation rentals prior to issuing a license to operate. After the county conducted these inspections for their registration process over 98 percent failed these inspections. These dwellings where occupied and operating as vacation rentals for years. These dwellings lack working smoke detectors, lack secondary means of egress, lack emergency lighting, lack fire extinguishers and lack diagrams showing the proper exits. These dwellings will once again become a death trap to the unsuspecting person residing in for their dream vacation along with our first responders trying to save these individuals.
Why are vacation rentals treated differently then an owner that license their one family dwelling as a bed and breakfast? They are providing transient operations by providing sleeping arrangements for a short term stay. A bed and breakfast is required to be inspected for fire and life safety semi annually each year. They are also required to have sprinkler installed if their secondary means of egress is not grade level. If you have not read the 2011 law vacation rentals where exempt from having a sprinkler installed. Why are vacation rentals exempt from sprinkler requirements? Some of these vacation rental are three stories high. What about ADA requirements? But the big issue is how vacation rentals are exempt from local zoning laws. A bed and breakfast is prohibited from operating in areas zoned for single family use. But a bed and breakfast is managed by on-site personal where a vacation rental is not regulated at all. All bets are off when it comes to these vacation rental dwellings being over occupied or controlling activities inside these dwellings.
I urge all Flagler residents to go to HomeruleFl. Com. In addition email your Commissioners and State Representatives. How can a local municipality create a comprehensive plan without control of their local zoning laws? The county is creating a comprehensive plan now!
This is not a property right issue. All businesses must be treated the same. These vacation rental dwellings are not single family homes used for permanent residency. They are operating transient operations. If you take a look at the Florida building code as it relates to Occupancy these transient operations are not R3 which refers to one family dwellings they are R1 which relates to transient operations our legislators continue to side with investors stating that these vacation rental dwellings are no different then single family dwellings. They are different and that is why they must comply with additional fire code requirements, apply for business licenses and require commercial insurance for the dwelling.
I have ask many residents this question. Would you buy a single family home as your permanent residence next door to a transient rental business, aka vacation rental??
Denali says
While I do not necessarily disagree with many of your comments, a few items require clarification. You make several comments about building code issues which appear to be in conflict with the existing editions of the “Florida Building Code, Building” (FBCB) and the “Florida Building Code, Residential” (FBCR).
Your statement about ‘transient operations’ is incorrect. The FBCB allows transient uses in Group R-3 with an occupant load of 10 or less. The R-1 use does not kick in until you exceed that 10 person occupant load. Occupant loading is very difficult to calculate in a single family dwelling. The only real guidance given by the FBCB is with respect to sleeping areas which allows 120 SF/person. This number is impossible to enforce as evidenced by the fact that we all know families with four kids living in a three bedroom house with 10 x 12 bedrooms. No building department of which I am aware requests/requires the number of occupants of a single family dwelling before, during or after permitting. And no fire department of which I am aware does routine maintenance inspections on single family dwellings thus occupant loading is never checked. Further, imagine the uproar if some fire department tried to evict a family because they had too many kids for the size of their house.
The FBCR does not require automatic fire sprinklers, fire extinguishers, a secondary means of egress (with or without a grade level access), emergency lighting and diagrams showing the proper exits in single family dwelling units. However, emergency escape and rescue openings are required from each sleeping area. The ADA is enforced by the federal DOJ, not local units of government and does not apply to single family dwellings.
You also comment as to how 98% of “transient public lodging establishments . . . failed these inspections”. As a retired state fire marshal and building code official I can just about guarantee you that I can walk into any single family residence, including yours, and find several life/safety violations.
Like it or not, the majority of these are single family dwelling units subject to the same building rules as your house. There would most likely be an issue with those McMansion houses and their 10 bedrooms but it appears the legislature has allowed the ship to sail and they have gotten free passes. That is wrong and will most likely result in someone’s death or injury.
Angela says
Denali: I appreciate your input, but please understand that these vacation rental houses are defined as commercial businesses by Flagler County. They are in the wrong zoning, and do not have to comply to the rules other commercial businesses do. Other businesses have to jump through hoops to comply that these businesses do not. Most of these commercial businesses are run by multi-billion dollar world wide companies, with a slew of lawyers that are working to make regular homeowners helpless in their own SFR neighborhoods.
Denali says
Angela – I never mentioned zoning or any other local issues. I never mentioned anything about businesses or any commercial venture. The only issue I addressed was compliance with state building codes.
Personally I feel that there are two sides to your concerns. Just like in our little neighborhoods, you have good folks and then there are the ‘others’. There are those rentals which you never see and only notice because of a different car in the driveway while there are others that unleash the hounds of hell every night. Short of banning all short term (vacation) rentals in specific residential areas, I do not know how you can control the actions of rude, obnoxious people. What I do know is that the building code is not the vehicle to get you there.
I wish you well in you efforts to bring peace and tranquility to your area.
Ron says
Let’s take a look at your comments regarding occupancy. Section 310 Residential group R 1 states
Residential occupancies containing sleeping units where occupants are primary transient in nature.
Now let’s look at your incorrect statement when it comes to 10 or fewer occupants. It states that 10 or fewer occupants permitted to comply with the construction requirements for group R3 if they are residing in a Congregate living facility ( transient)
R3 Residential occupancies where occupants are primary permanent in nature and not classy as group R1,R2,R4or I
Now let’s take a look at your other incorrect statements regarding chapter 69A-43 section 69A-43.018 uniform standards for transient public lodging
establishments.
Smoke detectors are required
Battery powered emergency lighting
Means of egress plus a secondary means of egress
Fire extinguishers
A floor diagram
Fire safety information pamphlet
Know let’s take a look at your other incorrect statement regarding sprinkler requirements in bed and breakfast. According to the DBPR Hotel and Restaurant- Guide to Bed and Breakfast under fire safety I quote- install an automatic fire sprinkler system in accordance with NFPA 25. Exception : if all rooms open directly to the outside at ground level or lead to an exterior stairway.
Not sure where you work but a certified Florida FM or Fire Safety inspector would be up to date on these requirements for public lodging establishments.
As far as your occupancy statement. These dwellings are not single family homes used for permanent occupancy. They are licensed businesses. They are transient in nature. They are not congregate Living facilities. They are required to abide to more stringent requirements. A transient public lodging business must be enforced by local governments! What other public lodging establishment is not inspected for occupancy? The standard is two persons per bedroom. That includes children. The exception would be for an infant under one years old sleeping with its parents.
How much more incorrect information are you going to throw out there? You are dealing with a fire professional that believes in protecting the public. That will not sell his soul to make a few bucks supporting illegal activities by vacation rental owners. I have seen this first hand. Illegal alterations just to increase occupancy with no secondary means of egress.
Once again these vacation dwellings are not single family homes!!
Denali says
So by your tone we are to assume that you are correct in what you have written? Not. Your statement about being a ‘fire professional’, your tone and your desire to twist the building code to meet your desires are so typical of what we used to call ‘the guy on the truck mentality’. Over the years I have seen more code-educated fire inspectors being chastised by ‘the truck guys’ because of what they wanted the code to say. I say this with no disrespect to any fire-fighter but there is a huge knowledge gap between the two groups, this gap flows both ways. I would never ask a fire inspector to do a building pre-plan nor would I ask a fire fighter from the line to do a Group H inspection.
Let’s be clear on one thing, I was and will continue to address the Florida Building Code; Building and Residential in my statements, not some legislative action written by politicians to appease public desires.
I never mentioned 69A-43.018 (so I made no ‘incorrect statements’ about it) as it is really nothing more than feel good political tripe. A Florida Administrative Code which while it carries the weight of law, is not a building code as I initially referenced. Actually, 69A-43.018 is an interesting document. It allows 150 gross SF/person, so the occupant load for a 3000 SF house is 20 people. The secondary exit you refer to so often is what the building code already requires as an emergency escape and rescue opening. And if you install an NFPA 13D system, you can eliminate the installation of smoke detectors and all ‘secondary exits’. It also contains outdated language regarding ‘mobile homes’ – these ceased to exist with the HUD acts in 1986 but who needs accuracy in government.
You have cherry-picked the building codes to make your point while conveniently ignoring the ‘boarding house’ provisions for an R-3 occupancy. Again, 10 or less transients in a boarding house make it an R-3. I never mentioned ‘congregate residences’, you brought them into the conversation. But either term could fit for the use of a single family dwelling as a short term rental. You are so hung up on the ‘primarily permanent nature’ that you cannot see the rest of the section. What in your opinion creates the need for additional safeguards whether the occupants are permanent or transient? Where is your evidence of the additional hazards encountered by a renter verses a permanent resident?
You have also conveniently neglected to mention R310.5.2 which addresses ‘owner occupied lodging houses with five or fewer guest rooms and 10 or fewer occupants that are allowed to be built to the Residential code. This is the code approach to B & B’s and would have worked just fine until the legislature got involved. But I digress as I never mentioned B & B’s.
So building code wise, the majority of structures you address are a Group R-3 occupancy. If local government or the state legislature want to make additional demands of these types of structures, it is within their purview. Again, all I am addressing are building code issues.
I do have a question of you as a ‘fire professional’; please explain how I am to design and install an automatic fire sprinkler system in accordance with NFPA 25? NFPA 25 is the standard for inspection, testing and maintenance of water based fire protection systems, it has nothing to do with the design or installation of said systems.
And for the record, everything I have stated here and in my first comment is based in fact; nothing more, nothing less.
Again, I have not disputed any of your desires here, just your path to get to them. Show us the increased hazard for a single family dwelling to be used as a short term rental. Until you can make that argument in a concise fashion, without using any zoning rules, neither you nor the politicians have a leg upon which to stand. As we used to hear so often in ICC, SBCCI, BOCA, ICBO and NFPA code development hearings, ‘show us the bodies’. Make us see where people are dying in single family dwellings used as short term rentals.
I can see that you are very passionate about this issue but, emotions have no place in this discussion.
Angela says
Denali: You are talking codes here, but you did ask “Make us see where people are dying in single family dwelling used as short term rentals.” I actually do have a spreadsheet that lists shootings from May 3, 2019 to December 27, 2022. Unfortunately, the formatting is off from Excel, converted to Apache Open Office, to here, so I’ll just give you the totals. These shootings occurred in the U.S. and Canada. The venues are short term rentals in zoned SFR, MFR and condos.
Number of shooting – 287
Number of injuries – 273
Number of deaths – 121
Known hosts – AirBnB and Vrbo
I have links to each incident, but I have a feeling Flagler Live might not be too happy with the space 287 links take up!
Denali says
And you think a building code is going to stop shootings?
Ron says
Thank you for pointing out the new edition to the occupancy code 2020 7 edition.
You refer to boarding houses with ten or fewer occupants and owner occupied lodging houses with five or fewer guest guest rooms and ten of fewer occupants. So if that number exceeded in a transient public lodging vacation rental then that dwelling would not be a R3 occupancy. Is that correct?
If that is correct can a R1 occupancy operate in residential single family property zoning?
If these transient dwellings are limited to occupancy of 10 or fewer occupants the square footage rule that your referring to is mute.
In addition that square footage rule that you mentioned does not apply to the room use for sleeping purposes .That square footage is 120 as you mentioned previously. So you are correct. If a inspection is conducted inside a vacation rental then the proper occupant load for a room 10×10 would be one person.
Regarding the increase hazard. Vacation rental transient activity use is the cause for more stringent fire prevention codes as reference in 69A.
This increase hazard is also why insurance companies require commercial insurance policy’s for vacation rentals vs homeowners insurance for single family dwellings.
Transient occupants are not familiar with the dwellings in addition to increase wear on the structure and appliances.
So yes I do feel that this transient dwelling is a greater life hazard then a home for permanent use. The greater the occupancy the greater the hazard.
Denali says
Ron – will try to respond in order.
Yes, the transition from an R-3 to an R-1 used as a boarding house or for congregate living happens at more than 10 occupants.
I have no idea if local zoning would allow an R-1 occupancy in a ‘residential single family zoning’ area. That is strictly a zoning issue and has nothing to do with the real building code. Part of my job as a building official was to drive the zoning folks over the cliff because we would allow a building to be built on a property line (with the proper fire resistive construction) when they wanted a 50 foot setback. Zoning rules and building codes do not mix well. Put it this way; building codes are law and zoning is based on local whim.
In your third paragraph which addresses occupant loading, my comments were based on that Florida Administrative Rule, 69A-43.018, written by politicians to make someone happy. As far as I am concerned they are political tripe.
You again bring 69A-43.018 to the table by referring to the increased ‘fire prevention codes’. I will say again that this document was constructed by politicians to make someone feel like they had done something positive.
I have asked to to put solid facts on the table to justify any increase to what you want to call fire safety. You have not provided any technical justification to make these changes. A ‘feeling’ is not a justification for revisions to the building codes.
As for the familiarity argument, that was debunked over 40 years ago. In my 30 years of involvement with building and fire code development at the national level I have heard it employed many times but it never swayed the debate. If you really want to address ‘familiarity’ you should be looking at stair geometry. Why is there a difference between the design of a stair from an R-1 to an R-3? Is one safer? Is one more comfortable? Should they be the same to promote familiarity? Better yet, why do the majority of states allow for an even steeper stair? Is this more unsafe?
Your last paragraph makes it clear that you are basing your goals on feelings and not facts. The building codes allow for transient uses (with limits) in Group R-3 occupancies and have the necessary built-in safeguards for such a small loading. Florida has, through 69A-43.018, has added some ‘feel good’ rules which have absolutely no basis in real world facts but they do sound good; they were written to make it look like they were doing something. Again, I do not disagree with your feelings but I cannot find any documentation to support the transient occupants of an R-3 structure are at any life/safety disadvantage.
Oops, missed your thoughts on insurance companies – if you have not yet noticed it, insurance companies will place a higher premium on anything they can. If they see you making a buck off something, they want a part of it. The VP of loss prevention (homeowners) for State Farm is an old friend has verified this many times over the years, usually after a few adult beverages.
Bottom line is that if you do not want these vacation rentals in our area, you are going to have to ban them from use through a zoning rule which it appears the state has preempted. The state also created a huge conflict in the law through the revised occupant loading in 69A-43.018. A court would most likely side with the legislative intent of allowing what I would call an R-1 occupant load in an R-3 structure and this is just wrong. This is the product of politicians bowing to industry without recognizing the full negative impact of their efforts on those people occupying those structures; real sprinkler systems, real fire alarm systems, a real exiting system with protected corridors (not just a bedroom window), properly located fire walls and smoke partitions and more.
Len says
Yes, if it’s a vacation home
Leila says
GREED has taken control of every coastal area in America. And it is in every state legislature. Need PAC money fast? They are happy to be of service. We shouldn’t have to be constantly fighting our own legislature for the right to self govern our own communities.
Big money talks, and the members of our state legislature are hearing it loud and clear. Follow the money. But they alone are not the problem. How many local realtors are making big money cashing in on this market?