Vacation rental legislation moving forward

from Anna Maria Island Sun March 29, 2023

BUSINESS & SERVICE DIRECTORY

The city of Anna Maria is at the forefront of the battle to retain the right to regulate vacation rentals at the local level.

BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT

ANNA MARIA – Concerns are growing about the Florida Legislature’s current efforts to reserve vacation rental regulation authority to the state.

Working in unison, Senate Bill 714 and House Bill 833 seek to preempt the regulation of short-term vacation rentals to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, weakening and possibly stripping city and county governments of the ability to regulate vacation rentals at the local level.

SB 714 and HB 833 also seek to preempt to the state the regulation of vacation rental advertising platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. Working in unison, House Bill 105 and Senate Bill 92 also seek to preempt vacation rental regulations to the state.

All four pieces of legislation are currently working their way through the various Senate and House committee stops that must be cleared before matching bills can be put before the Senate and House for final votes and then sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign into law or veto.

SB 714 proposes limiting local governments to charging no more than $50 for an annual vacation rental registration fee for a single vacation rental home or unit; and no more than $100 to register multiple vacation rental homes or units at one time.

As part of its annual occupancybased registration process, the city of Anna Maria currently charges $84 per year, per occupant and the owner of a small vacation rental home or unit pays a lower annual fee than the owner of a large vacation rental home or structure.

As part of the annual registration process, SB 714 would still require vacation rental owners or managers to designate and identify someone to respond to complaints and immediate problems.

The proposed legislation would still allow local governments to enforce parking and trash regulations at vacation rental properties as long as those regulations are not imposed solely on vacation rentals.

Legislative Concerns

On March 23, Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy provided the city commission with a recap of his March 15 trip to Tallahassee to lobby against the legislation. Murphy said he met oneon-one with 10 different legislators. He also hand-delivered to them copies of a city resolution that formally expresses the city’s opposition to SB 714.

Murphy said the state legislators he met with are fully aware of the legislation’s intent and implications.

Murphy met with Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, from Naples, who told him this legislation was a top priority and she likes SB 714 as it’s currently written. He also met with Speaker of the House Paul Renner, Sen. Nick DiCeglie, the original sponsor of SB 714, and Sen. Jason Brodeur, the chair of the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government Committee that will soon be the second of three committee stops for SB 714. He also met with Sen. Jim Boyd, Sen. Joe Gruters, Rep. Will Robinson Jr. and Rep. Bob Rommel. All the aforementioned legislators are Republicans.

His first meeting was with Gruters, who represents portions of Manatee and Sarasota counties and chairs the Regulated Industries Committee that served as SB 714’s first committee stop.

On March 14, SB 714 passed through that committee by a 5-2 vote, with all votes cast along party lines.

Gruters was one of three committee members who didn’t cast a vote on the bill. Murphy said Gruters told him that he tried, but failed, to kill SB 714 by not letting it be heard by the committee.

“Senator Gruters said this thing’s a done deal. This is going all the way,” Murphy said.

Murphy said Boyd and Robinson advised him to keep pressure on state legislators by using the city-owned Home Rule Florida website, www.HomeRuleFl.com.

“Our lobbyist said our best chance is to lobby the Senate,” Murphy said, noting the Home Rule Florida website is the strongest tool to do so.

Murphy said none of the legislators he met with had heard from the Florida League of Cities on this matter.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to hear that,” he said.

“This bill has the potential to change the entire complexion of our city,” Murphy said. “This bill eliminates our ability to control occupancy in houses. Before we had our ordinance in place, there were houses with 25 people jammed into them and they were party houses.”

Murphy said absentee Airbnb and Vrbo homeowners don’t care how many people they put in a rental home. He told state legislators the proposed legislation would lead to a proliferation of party houses that would change the complexion of Anna Maria as a residential type of city.

The city prohibits vacation rental advertisements that exceed the guest occupancy allowed by the vacation rental ordinance and stated in the annual registration form. The city contracts a company that monitors the online advertising of vacation rentals as part of the city’s vacation rental enforcement efforts.

“The only way we control it is through the marketing platform. We have to have that ability to set occupancy limits and monitor occupancy.

That’s the key element that goes away with this bill,” Murphy said.

Airbnb Incident

Commissioner Charlie Salem referred to a March 15 incident captured on a Ring doorbell camera involving multiple gunshots fired in association with a party at an Airbnb home in Bradenton.

10 Tampa Bay news reported the Bradenton Police Department responded to a noise complaint at an Airbnb on Southern Parkway West where several young people were throwing a party. According to the news report, some party attendees fled when the officers arrived and gunshots were later fired within a couple of blocks of the Airbnb. Police discovered shell casings but made no immediate arrests. Nobody was injured but three homeowners reported property damage associated with the party and/or the gunfire, including a shattered front door window. The following morning, the Airbnb tenants were evicted, according to the 10 Tampa Bay report.

Salem noted the incident occurred in a Bradenton neighborhood that isn’t heavily populated by vacation rentals. He’s concerned the adoption of the proposed vacation rental legislation would prevent local officials from making changes that better protect residents.

During the commission’s March 9 meeting, Salem expressed concerns that residents and local governing bodies beyond Anna Maria Island would be negatively impacted by the proposed legislation.

DOH-Manatee closes COVID testing site

The Florida Department of Health in Manatee County (DOH-Manatee) has closed the COVID-19 testing site that it had been operating since the beginning of the year. A directory of COVID-19 testing sites in Manatee County is available at www.floridahealthcovid19.gov. Click on the “Testing Site Locator” on the home page and then click on Manatee in the dropdown box of Florida counties. The website also includes a directory of COVID-19 vaccination providers across the county, including DOH-Manatee’s main campus at 410 Sixth Ave. E in Bradenton, and Manatee South Center at 7880 Westmoreland Drive. Both sites offer no-cost COVID-19 vaccinations by appointment or on a walk-in basis. For more information or to book a COVID-19 vaccination, call 941-748-0747.