“I would be surprised if it gets through the governor’s veto pen,” Lauren Boehmer, one of Palm Coast’s lobbyists from the Southern Group, told the council on Tuesday in reference to a bill all but ending local regulation of vacation rentals. Boehmer was right. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday, facing pressure to do so, vetoed the measure–the first to clear the Legislature after annual attempts since 2014–saying the proposal would create “bureaucratic red tape” for local officials.
The bill would not have affected Flagler County: Rep. Paul Renner, the Speaker of the House and the county’s representative, had included a grandfather clause leaving the county’s existing regulations intact. Flagler Beach has had just such a clause since 2011.
But the new bill, had DeSantis not vetoed it, would have prevented Palm Coast from enacting stricter vacation-rental regulations just as the city is experiencing a surge of complaints about multiplying rentals from residents. Council members have been hearing complaints at council meetings and by email. (See: “Sprawling Vacation Rentals Becoming a Nuisance to Palm Coast Residents. City’s Answer: ‘Our Hands Are Tied.’”)
The complaints are almost identical to those Flagler County used to hear in 2012 and 2013, before enactment of the 2014 law re-enabling local governments to more strictly regulate short-term rentals. Flagler County had led the fight for that law, which led to a county ordinance other local governments copied. (See: “Flagler Seeks, Flagler Wins: Bill Restoring Vacation-Rental Regulation Authority Passes House and Heads for Scott’s Desk.”)
Now, Palm Coast has another chance to write its own vacation-rental ordinance, or at least craft some city-specific regulations. City Council member Theresa Pontieri said this morning she intends to open the way for just such a proposal, with caution.
“We have to really ensure we’re balancing the property rights interests of property owners, with the interests of preserving our neighborhoods and making sure that neighbors to these Airbnbs, their right to quality of life and to enjoy their own homes is also protected,” Pontieri said. “So we really have to look at that as kind of the primary starting point and then from there, look at regulations that don’t infringe on property rights, but also protect the neighbors interests such as capacity limits for how many people a residence can sleep. For instance, if we have a two-bedroom home, putting a limit on six people that they can advertise as a rental for things like that.”
Flagler County places a limit of 10 occupants for single-family homes, though some rentals that pre-date the 2014 law are grandfathered in, with higher limits. State law–aside from the vetoed bill–prohibits local governments from banning vacation rentals altogether, or the frequency with which rentals are used. But it allows restricting the use of vacation rentals, including occupancy. (See the legislative analysis of the 2014 bill here.)
“Those are regulations that we can look at that can help this issue,” Pontieri said. “I know it’s a prevalent issue in my section in my district, specifically in the C section. So it’s something that I’m really interested in looking at, and making sure that again, we’re balancing property owner rights interests with the interests of quality of life.”
The council has been hearing complaints at every meeting this month, like one by a homeowner worried about a house nearby getting converted into a vacation rental: “It’s a nightmare,” he said. “I know I’m beating the dead horse to death but there’s a house on our streets that is for sale and the whole block is upset about what’s going to happen with that house.” He added: “There’s more and more houses that are being turned into the short term rentals. There’s more advertising for it. Facebook even has pages where they say, turn your home into a rental. You can make $5,000 a week or whatever. So it’s just going to get worse and we need to do something about it.” The $5,000-a-week figure is barely an exaggeration for Palm Coast (a C-Section house is advertising for $431 a night), but not at all one on the barrier island.
Oversight of vacation rentals for years has been a thorny issue for the Legislature, as advertising for properties on platforms such as Airbnb has ballooned.
This year’s bill (SB 280) — a priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples — also was contentious, with the Senate voting 23-16 to approve it and the House passing it in a 60-51 vote in the waning days of the legislative session.
Champions of short-term rentals say they provide extra income for homeowners and boost tourism, while critics complain that noise, trash, and traffic woes from a revolving cast of visitors negatively transform neighborhoods. As of January, there were 652 single-family homes used as vacation rentals in the county, according to the Tax Collector’s quarterly data, 774 condos, town homes or duplexes used to that end, and 45 dwellings only partially used for rentals. Of that total, Palm Coast had 506 vacation-rental properties, Flagler Beach had 198 and unincorporated Flagler County had 809, a majority of those in the Hammock, which had been ground zero of the vacation-rental wars.
DeSantis’ veto drew mixed reactions.
“This is a difficult issue that has property owners on both sides who deserve a voice in the process,” Senate bill sponsor Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, said in a text message. “We worked hard to pass legislation through both the Senate and the House that took the concerns of all stakeholders into consideration. While I disagree with the governor’s decision, I understand his concerns.”
Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed, whose drafting of Flagler County’s 2015 ordinance became a template for other governments, welcomed the veto even though it had no effect on the county.
“The Governor correctly recognized the flaws of this bill which is why the County opposed it vehemently during the process,” he wrote in an early-morning email. “The poison pill planted in the bill was that any regulation enacted by a local government had to be applied equally to all residential properties of the jurisdiction. No local government would do that because of the sheer expense in managing or regulating every single residential structure, whether available for rent or not. Not only would such a system be highly impractical and costly to administer, but it would also be highly offensive to ordinary homeowners. Notably, under the bill occupancy limits could not be legislated or enforced. Occupancy limits are the key in reducing nuisance behavior that disturbs neighborhoods. Before the County passed its standards in 2015, ‘party houses’ were abundant and infringed on ordinary single-family neighborhoods.”
Flagler County’s aim was to ensure that houses used for short term rentals met life safety code requirements. The proposed bill would have left that intact. “But beyond that, the bill did not offer local governments the ability to tailor their standards based on community characteristics,” Hadeed said. “The veto was entirely appropriate, and the Governor has left good direction for the Legislature if it chooses to address the issues again.”
Melbourne Beach Mayor Alison Dennington called DeSantis’ veto “wonderful.”
“It seems like he’s recognizing that there should be some local registration, that we should be allowed to have it, and that this went too far,” Dennington told The News Service of Florida. Dennington suggested DeSantis create a work group to explore the issue.
“I would love it if he would form some kind of task force with some legislators and some local officials and some building officials, like a regional task force, and maybe we could come back and propose better legislation next year. That would make both sides happy on some of these issues,” the mayor said.
The bill would have prevented local governments “from enforcing existing ordinances or passing any new local measure which would exclusively apply to vacation rentals,” DeSantis wrote in a veto message Thursday.
“Under the bill, any such measure must apply to all residential properties. The effect of this provision will prevent virtually all local regulation of vacation rentals even though the vacation rental markets are far from uniform across the various regions of the state,” the governor wrote. “Going forward, I encourage the Florida Legislature and all key stakeholders to work together, with the understanding that vacation rentals should not be approached as a one-size-fits-all issue.”
The bill drew intense opposition from vacation-rental management companies, coastal community leaders and Florida Realtors, an influential real-estate industry group whose members urged DeSantis to nix the measure.
Speaking to the News Service in March, Dennington called short-term rentals “an existential threat” to single-family zoning. “Because having a mini-motel pretending like it’s single-family zoning right in the heart of every single-family-zoned street is not single-family zoning. … It’s a commercial enterprise. Period,” she said.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this article.
Joe D says
Question?
Has the grandfathered Flagler Beach regulations for short term vacation regulation ( life safety inspection/registration with the local jurisdiction/ tax collection), worked for the City?
Could that FLAGLER Beach regulation be used as a template for a STATEWIDE policy? Do the short term rental groups have issues with Flagler’s policies?
Seems like there should be some way of owners being able to make some extra money without totally disrupting the entire neighborhood around them.
There actually is a Short term vacation rental next door to my townhouse. However, there is a HOA governing the entire complex, so there is more PRESSURE on the owner to “follow the rules” and keep the tenants under control. So far (3 years), the vacation rental tenants have not caused a problem. It might have to do with the 2 bedroom/1.5bath/ 2 car parking space limit (no street parking). It’s not big enough to host a large party, as has been discussed in other neighborhoods complaining.
Not sure what could be done in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a HOA to set a limits on rental behavior?
Laurel says
Well, good for DeSantis again! Gotta give credit where credit is due.
“The bill drew intense opposition from vacation-rental management companies, coastal community leaders and Florida Realtors, an influential real-estate industry group whose members urged DeSantis to nix the measure.” In other words, screw you residents, it’s all about money for us, not your quality of life as residents. You are just in the way.
Ms. Pontieri: Explain to me how out of town, out of county, out of state, out of country investors have commercial property rights over the property rights of homeowners in single family zoned residential neighborhoods? It is clear that other commercial businesses must comply to rules that these mini-motels do not. They are in commercial zones. For instance, businesses must be 100′ away from residents whereas short term rental can enjoy far less distances from residents. In fact, they can be a few feet away. Regular hotels and motels, and even bed and breakfast rentals must comply to stiffer regulations, that these investors don’t need to worry about. All other commercial businesses must comply to stiffer regulations that these, rarely local owners, must comply to, but in our neighborhoods? No problem. Please explain to me, Ms. Pontieri, how that works. Chances are that the locals are more likely to vote for you, but as you know, the out of town investors can’t. So, again, how does that work? Same with other municipal and county commissioners. What are the incentives? Just a bed tax used to draw more transients, and does nothing for the benefit of residents living next door?
The number of vacation rentals in Flagler County, and in the Hammock in particular, is insane! How are these “neighborhoods”? No wonder the price of homes has skyrocketed. No wonder rental increases are unaffordable. No wonder our young cannot afford to work and live here. It’s all about money for a few, mostly investors who have no interest in our county other than to line their pockets.
Having year around rentals by lease, and six month rentals by lease, are fine. These people are neighbors, and have been vetted by the house owner. They work, shop and are a part of our society. In fact, a six month lease must be six months and a day, which means that the rental cannot be divided up to two different leases within one year. Why is it the local, more responsible house owner, or apartment owner, or condo owner, must follow rules stricter than these short term rental investors?
“”Speaking to the News Service in March, Dennington [Melbourne Beach Mayor] called short-term rentals “an existential threat” to single-family zoning. “Because having a mini-motel pretending like it’s single-family zoning right in the heart of every single-family-zoned street is not single-family zoning. … It’s a commercial enterprise. Period,” she said.”” She is absolutely correct! Now there’s a mayor who cares!
It is now time to regulate these properties so that there are limited number of days allowed to rent, limited number of people (the average residential home has 2.5 residents) and it’s time to get them out of residential neighborhoods and give residents their neighborhoods back to them.
My Two Cents says
Laurel, I agree with you 1000%. Just my two cents on this. I though that BnB’s were just that. A house with a few bedrooms and either the BnB owner or employee cooking breakfast for the guests and then on their way they go to sight see, beach, shop whatever!! I guess I watch too much Hallmark movies lol. Like everyone else here we dropped a whole lot of money on our house (our investment) and I don’t appreciate folks coming and going next door to me or across the street from me. I have no problem with long term renters that have respect for the property and the property surrounding them but I have a huge problem with short term renters and I can only blame myself for that because I did not do my homework, what I did was listen to people……
Laurel says
Airbnb stands for airbed and breakfast. They lie.
There’s nothing wrong with real bed and breakfast facilities. The big difference is monitoring. B and B’s have the owner, or a rep, on site. Short terms do not. They expect the neighbors to do their job for them, since the owners are, by a vast majority, are not even local. We got tired of people interrupting our lives with a battery of the same questions over and over again. What do you do? Be rude, which is not fun, or be the unpaid front desk? Short terms do not belong in residential neighborhoods as they are commercial investments, not neighbors. The whole “property rights” thing is bullshit created by the short term, real estate and tourist industries.
[email protected] says
I am a Realtor in Palm Coast, and can not agree more.
The short term rental should have restrictions.
Totally agree 100%
Hopefully the Mayor in Flagler can do the same.
Jane Gentile Youd says
I am a member of the Florida Realtors since 1979 and I am thrilled the Governor vetoed the Vacation Rental Bill. Florida Realtors does not represent everyone of us individually as Realtors. SINGLE FAMILY use in a DEED has never , in my experience, been worded “and/or” rent whenever to whomever you want”! I am not a fan of De Santis nor Hadeed but on this issue I say thank you and a big thank you to Pauk Renner,
I want to know WHO I live next door to full time. Vacation rentals are commercial uses in single family zones – ugh ugh for me.
R says
New vacation stay next door to me. No problem so far but annoying to have a basically commercial property next door on my one lane dirt road in the Hammock I have been in for 20 years. I’m very fortunate to live where others want to vacation, frustration having a rental next door sucks. At least they help keep my taxes lower thanks to to Save Our Homes
Laurel says
R: Short term rentals do nothing to help your taxes. The bed tax is mainly used to advertise for more tourism. The Save Our Homes is a 3% cap on your real estate tax, and has nothing to do with short term rentals. The only people short term rentals help, are tourist businesses and investors. They do nothing for residents other than crowd your streets, grocery stores and beaches.
Crystal Lang says
Vacation rentals belong at the beach. Not in neighborhoods. When I went to the beach we stayed at the beach not the town over from the beach and if we could not afford to do so we stayed home or did something else as a family. Yes I remember that.
Ron says
A big thank you to our Governor!
But there is a big problem with our local politicians that believe this is a property rights issue. If an owner of a one family dwelling licensed their one family dwelling as a bed and breakfast it would be prohibited from operating in areas designated as single family neighborhoods. As stated in our local property zoning laws.
Both a vacation rental dwelling and a bed and breakfast are transient lodging establishment businesses. They both provide areas for sleeping and food consumption. So why is a vacation rental exempt from our local zoning laws?
At least a bed and breakfast is supervised by the owner or representative making sure the occupancy is not exceeded and able to respond immediately to complaints where a vacation rental dwelling is unregulated. There is no one present to make sure the occupancy is not exceeded and immediately available to respond to complaints.
This issue on regulating vacation rentals should once and for all be returned fully to the local municipalities. The State does not have the resources. The 2011 SB883 should be repealed. Our legislators should introduce a bill and overturn the 2011 law.
As far as the City of Palm Coast is concern they should immediately adopt the Flagler County ordinances. These ordinances where held up when challenge in court along with the Burt Harris claims. Not one claim was paid.
Let’s remember that the 2011 SB883 was written by the Florida Vacation Managment Association attorney Lori Killinger.This attorney falsely presented this bill to our legislators. Since then it has become a problem for any municipality that did not have an ordinance in place prior to July 1, 2011. Here is a fact that you may not know. Prior to 2011 these vacation rental dwellings were called Resort Dwellings. So what was the purpose of changing the name of these dwellings? Maybe by changing the name they can claim that these dwellings are no different than a home with a permanent occupancy. Do you really think that a transient lodging business operation is a home? What home is required to obtain a business license or pay bed tax in addition to abiding by additional Fire Prevention codes?
Stay vigilant fighting to preserve our neighborhoods because this issue will once again be brought up in Tallahassee. Do not trust politician’s who will not protect the rights of our residents. If they are not willing to put in writing then they should not be representing our communities.
nomore bnb says
NYC put in place “Local Law 18” to regulate rentals / Airbnb and worked out perfectly… we can go with something similar. As far as Air BNB I’ve had multiple seniors sell and leave and other in the process, the straw on the last one was a female being beaten in the street at 4am – what a great place to live right?! We bought houses here to know our neighbors and for peace and quiet,.. not to live in a drug party infused criminal hotel OK? fix it. Dennington is right – this is a threat to everyone, and the other commenter about deeds saying nothing about being a hotel is also right on…
michele says
Thank God I’m in an HOA community.
for the record though..my brother, his wife and son are currently in an AirBNB for the week. They’re in the B-section.
Are you ready? $105 per night.
so whoever wrote that article is again referring to the “McMansions” down in Flagler Beach.
There are neighborhood homes being rented by who knows. Do the owners do background checks? or just collect the rent? I drove there last night and there were 5 little girls in the street playing
in the street. my thoughts immediately went to “How do they know my brother is not some deviant?”
Laurel says
Michele: There is no vetting, and there are no guarantees the renters are safe, honest people. Registered sex offenders must notify their neighbors of their convictions. Should they leave town for more than two days, they must notify the local authorities, but it is clearly questionable that they do. In a short term rental, who do you figure they notify? They could find a desirable neighborhood, and repeatedly rent without anyone’s knowledge of their intentions.
Trafficking and drugs are other major concerns. All they need is a credit card to get in. They don’t need to meet anyone for a key. Whose watching?
Don’t be over confident about HOAs, the vacation rental industry will continue to fight, and if they win, they will be in your neighborhood too. HOAs have a skin in the game, and should be fighting along side other residents.
Concerned says
There is already a process in place that clarifies land use and its purpose called ZONING. It was and is the responsibility of the purchaser to do their due diligence in order to understand, respect and abide by the laws PRIOR to their purchase. If a buyer intent is to rent out their home, all they need to do is purchase it in an area zoned for short term renting. Those who saved and did their research in order to live in a non-commercial/residential neighborhood deserve to have their rights respected, as well. As a safeguard and proof of understanding of the zoning laws before purchasing, why not add a simple clause which clearly indicates the zoning rules and expectations and have the buyer sign it in order to avoid any future challenges to the land usage.
Laurel says
Concerned: I agree. The problem is that the county, and its cities, allowed these businesses in after people were already living there. We have owned property here since 2001, yet we never saw anything that announced this action, and had no choice to vote for it or against it.
Ron says
Unfortunately our legislators in Tallahassee decided that one family dwellings being operated with a business license as a transient public lodging establishment, AKA vacation rental should be treated just like a dwelling being used for permanent occupancy by a family. The 2011 SB883 basically took away our local municipalities ability to use their property zoning laws. They also did not recognize this operation in the Florida Building Occupancy code like every other lodging establishment . They also prohibited any municipalities from restricting this incompatible use if they did not prohibit this use prior to July 2011.
How are these municipalities supposed to create a comprehensive plan to prohibit incompatible uses?
Beware who you vote for as your local officials particularly if they have a conflict with the vacation rental business. They could be in the insurance, real estate business or lawyers who created this mess in the first place.