Ending a half-year slog, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday approved the city’s first-ever short-term vacation rental regulations, with registration and inspection fees and penalties for violators. There are well over 200 such rentals in the city.
The 10-guest cap per rental survived after a last-ditch attempt by two council members to raise it, but children exempt from counting against the cap may now be up to 3 years old. The previous exemption applied for children up to 1 year old.
Palm Coast’s milestone may be short-lived should the Florida Legislature do what it’s done every year since 2014, coming closer to success every time: attempt to prohibit most local regulations of the fast-growing industry even as it continues to alter the character of residential neighborhoods. A bill scrapping local regulations passed both chambers of the Legislature last year but was vetoed by the governor.
That bill, however, carved out an exemption for Flagler County regulations, thanks to Paul Renner, who was the county’s representative at the time, and the Speaker of the House. Renner was term-limited, and his replacement, Sam Greco, has no such pull.
The Palm Coast ordinance on short-term rentals, or STRs, as council members refer to them, was approved unanimously on second reading, which means it is now in effect. Notably, it was approved with the votes of three council members–Mayor Mike Norris, Council members Ray Stevens, Ty Miller, and to some extent Charles Gambaro–who had not worked on it as it emerged out of the administration’s scriptorium last summer. But they had voted on it on first reading last month.
The approval might have been delayed yet again after Gambaro floated an amendment to exempt owner-occupied short-term rentals from the 10-person guest limit. The property would have to be homesteaded for that exemption to apply. “All the other aspects of the enforcement of the ordinance from a public safety perspective remain in effect,” he proposed.
Council member Ray Stevens supported the owner-occupied exemption. It “boggled my mind,” he said, that guest occupancy would be limited in any short-term rental. He favored a two-person-per room limit, but if a house has six rooms, it should be allowed to host 12 people. Otherwise, the cap limits the operators’ ability to “make a buck,” as he put it, as members of the audience snorted.
Norris did not see it that way. “The whole issue is the number of people and about their bottom line, how much money they make,” Norris said, referring to what he described as just three people who have had an issue with the proposed ordinance, and who have lobbied him and other members of the council hard to lift the limit on occupancy.
“As I told them in our meeting, your income is not relevant. In this argument, the quality of life in our neighborhoods are relevant,” Norris said. “If the issue is you want to own a true bed and breakfast, whatever, a hotel, buy a hotel. But you are living in a residential neighborhood.” A resident had just told him that a rental had 18 people under one roof, “and that that is not a reasonable amount, and personally, I thought we came to a reasonable compromise during the last meeting as far as the number of people.”
Council member Theresa Pontieri, who pushed for then championed the ordinance from its inception, was just as strongly opposed to relaxing the occupancy limit, but also worried that if the Gambaro proposal was adopted, homeowners would attempt to “skirt that rule” and appear to be homesteaded on paper without being so in the actual house. Several residents who addressed the council raised that issue: who will police the owners in that regard, they asked, though the county property appraiser has strict rules and verifications of homesteaded properties. One of the angrier residents put it bluntly: “No one’s going to force no code around here,” he said.
Roger Cressey of the Canal Community Coalition, the neighborhood group established last year to lobby for vacation-rental regulations–and that can legitimately take credit for the ordinance–said the 10-person cap should be a closed matter. “That limit of 10, we think, is sacrosanct,” he said, citing 40 properties that have had complaints lodged against them in the C-Section alone in the last six months over “noise to lights to abuse from them to people parking on their gardens, to trespassing and fishing,” he said. Three or four members of the coalition have put their houses up for sale “so that they could get out of dodge, away from the STRS,” he said, while Cressy’s own family hid away from the neighborhood on new Year’s to get away from the noise of the Airbnb across the street.
“This is this is our lives. It’s our livelihood. It’s our property. And when someone starts to talk about somebody else making money out of a residential property in a residential area, it starts to get my higher up,” Cressy said, pressing for the 10-person cap.
Joel Davisson, the owner, with his wife, of a 4,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house on Pine Grove Drive, said he’s been an Airbnb for nine years without complaints. The Davissons have lobbied hard against the 10-person cap (what one resident described to the council as “business owners crying the blues”). Davisson said: “People will break rules, but, you know, not us, our little bubble,” he said.
The amendment exasperated some of the residents who’d watched the council craft the ordinance over months. “We visited and revisited this thing since July, and there’s always an 11th-hour addendum or recommendation. And I really felt that we should have been past this by now,” a C-Section resident said.
“I understand that we do have good Airbnb operators that abide by the rules,” Miller, the council member, said. “But there has to be a line somewhere that’s drawn, and wherever that line is drawn, someone will have a problem with that. I’m afraid of the slippery slope of adding more, and then it becomes a problem later that doesn’t address the problems that we’re trying to get fixed right now.”
Gambaro’s amendment failed 3-2, with Norris, Pontieri and Miller voting against it. Then it was Norris’s turn to float his amendment, raising the age exemption within the guest cap to 3. That passed unanimously (Gambaro held no grudge over losing his amendment.)
The council also approved fees in a separate vote. The city estimates its code enforcement costs will be around $120,000. The council last year authorized adding a code enforcement officer to police short-term rentals, though the city won’t assign a single officer to the task. It will be distributed among existing officers as part of their other duties. A short-term rental registration will cost $275 annually, plus a $75 annual inspection fee. If the rental is transferred to a new owner, the same fee will re-apply at that point. The fees are expected to generate $123,000. The fees will be raised to match inflation annually.
Code violators will first be issued a warning. If problems persist, the matter will be referred to the city’s Code Enforcement Board. Fines may be levied. Short-term rental licenses may be revoked, liens imposed, and civil or criminal penalties sought.
The city does not have a limit on allowable short-term rentals. A resident cautioned the city about that, noting the explosive number of rentals in some communities, “so we’re not overwhelmed.” Norris considered it “a very good consideration,” though the proposal is pre-empted by state law, as Pontieri noted. The law forbids such limits.
The ordinance has passed. But it may be written in pencil more than stone, not just because the Legislature’s likely next attempt at invalidating local ordinances looms. “There are things on both sides that people would still like to see worked on. So I think I’m open to that,” Pontieri said.
Endless dark money says
Stupid rules ,this is merica where money is all that matters. Why don’t they prevent company’s from buying single family homes? Simple that’s who they represent. For the corporations by the corporations in greed we trust.
Jan says
Let Sedona, Arizona be a cautionary tale about short-term rentals. With a proliferation of short-term rentals, full-time residents left Sedona, the population dwindled, and Sedona had to close one of its two elementary schools.
Perhaps there could be a section built in Town Center, comprised solely of houses built for short-term rental. We have a model of this in Florida – in Champion’s Gate, near Orlando. I visited it – houses built for high occupancy and short-term rentals with amenities such as pools for the short-term renters.
This way, short-term renters can visit our area, and those residents who purchased homes in single-family neighborhoods expecting community and friends, not rotating groups of strangers, could all be happy.
Angela Bailus says
So this is what you get when politicians are lobbied by multi-billion dollar businesses, and investors, most of whom do not live here: you get sympathy for owners of motel units peppered throughout your residential neighborhood. Should have never began. Money for the few overrides the sanctity of the many.
Lord, I am tired of the “business friendly” politicians and their lack of caring for constituents just trying to live peacefully in their homes, as they had bought into, worked for and desired all their lives. The American Dream of home ownership did not include this business invasion, which should have been allowed only in commercial or mixed zones to begin with. Not single family residential zones.
The only rental “STR” should start at six months and a day. The “cap” should remain close to the number of residents in a normal household. “Single family” does not refer to ten unrelated people under one roof, not counting the kids. Apparently, politicians do not comprehend the term “single family residence.”
Enjoy the “compromises,” and revolving door strangers next to you. People who rent these units are delighted to tell you that you rent online and do not have to contact anyone. You are officially the front desk for monitoring disturbances.
Adam Frank says
After Palm Coast City Councilmember Pontieri’s bid to have Palm Coast acquire Malacompre Park from Flagler County failed (not to mention that it’s NOT contiguous with the City Limits), she finally got one.
I am continuing to be happy that I live beachside, and thankfully, not under Councilwoman Pontieri’s jurisdiction.
Elaine says
I feel like I pissed my hard earned money away moving here and buying the house I live in. I had no idea about this vacation rental crap I honestly didn’t think I needed to do homework on Palm Coast. If I wanted to live in a vacation rental type place it would have been, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Daytona Beach etc….. Not Palm Coast. Most of these houses are 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom, how do you put 10 people not including children under that roof. Just a note back in the day my mom had to sign rental papers stating that children a boy and a girl CANNOT sleep in the same room so I would like to know how this is being done. Are they saying it’s allowed because people and children can sleep in the bedrooms, living room, den and kitchen???? You are not getting 10 adults plus kids in 3 bedrooms.
Ron says
This whole situation was created by Lori Killinger of the Florida Vacation Management Association. They are the ones that wrote SB883 in 2011 and duped the Florida legislature knowing where they were going to target local jurisdictions that did not have ordinances on the books regulating vacation rental businesses. They also change the name of these dwellings from Resort Dwellings to Vacation Rentals. This way they can avoid being properly recognized in the building occupancy code as a lodging establishment right along side a bed and breakfast, motel, hotel which conduct the exact same transient business operation providing sleeping arrangements and an area to consume food.
But in 2014 we were able to get back some limited regulatory control for our localities. Which gave us the ability to create ordinances to not only hold vacation rental owners accountable for fire and life safety requirements which where not being enforced as per the Florida Prevention laws but to improve the quality of life for every permanent resident in Florida. These ordinances have not prevented vacation operations nor have they prevented these operations from growing.
But still the Florida Vacation industry is still held bent on continuing to fight our residents taken aim on destroying every locality that did not have ordinances in place since July 1, 2011.
The only solution that will prevent this is to return full control back to all local municipalities to regulate and zone vacation rentals as our constituents request. We the people elect our representatives and we have the power to unelected our representatives that go against us.
It is time for our New Legislators to introduce a bill to repeal 2011 SB 883! These are no longer homes once they are licensed by the State as transient public lodging establishments. Treat them like any other lodging business.
WatchingU says
Code enforcement???? You must be joking. Code enforcement only cares about builders. They dont give a hoot over quality of life issues. Boats parked in driveways. Cars being parked on the street overnight, (no, not the swail, the blacktop. Surely you jest.
Steve says
So much drama for a small terribly run Town. Leave and don’t look back is my advice. So many other places in Florida to reside and not have to fight it.
Good luck
Paul johnson says
The best one of all is Flagler County 40 years ago getting a judge to say the county is not responsible for the roads in Daytona North because ITT didn’t follow regulations then they put a special tax on the mondex to do the roads but never do them now that’s a good old boy thing there where’s the money maybe the FBI can figure it out Mr Andy dance and Mr Hansen and his three little slots
John Weber says
Hey let’s create an environmentally sensitive fund so he can funnel the money to certain people great idea the problem is called narcissism normal people don’t run for office so you have all the narcissist it’s mental illness it’s almost all your politicians are narcissist now that’s what Hitler took care of the narcissist
Cindy says
Code enforcement????? Let me tell you a little story about code enforcement. My husband was helping a friend fix something at one of his houses. It was a rental property with several cars and a swale that was a ditch. So at 9:00 on a Tuesday morning he parked his car (personal car) on the island in front of the house did what he went there to do. This is on the other side of town so he got home about 10:30am went about our business. About a week later a letter came in the mail from the City of Palm Coast, opened it and found a parking violation for him parking on the island. The time on the violation said 9:03am. Mr. Code Enforcement watched my husband park and get out of his car waited for him to go inside and then reported it. Nice right? He could have walked or drove over to him to tell him to move his car but he chose to sit in his truck and watch him walk into the house and then wrote a violation. I’m not sure where he would have parked since there was nowhere else to park but anyway.
Ken says
What about all the slum lords dilapidated property in the p-section behind Wadsworth school and well water dr? Enforce the upkeep of the homes.
Ron says
What is wrong with some of you. Talk about getting off track on this important subject. But there are some people in politics that do not how to use common sense. I for one do not understand the logic behind allowing children three or under to not count towards occupancy.
Maybe the Mayor should rethink this part of the ordinance. The fact is during a fire in a dwelling a child or elderly are the ones that will either be seriously injured or die.