10/09/19 V6iss19

WMG Volume 6 • Issue 19 October 9, 2019

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Wilton Manors Gazette Facebook.com/groups/WMGazette

City Lowers Fees for AirBNB Type Rentals

By Sallie James

City officials have lowered the fees real challenge. The city has 61 registered required to register vacation rentals here vacation rentals but more than 300 and reduced the annual renewal fees. The vacation rentals pop up when you go to new fee schedule went into effect on Oct. www.airbnb.com and choose “Wilton Manors” as a destination.

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“I think the biggest concern is Vacation rentals are surging in popularity across the nation as vacationers identifying the unregistered ones,” said shy away from traditional hotels in search City Council member Paul Rolli. “You can Google them but you can’t find of better deals and out where they are.” ac c o m m o d at i o n s City council members that are more like The city has amended the ordinance that home than a resort.

61 registered regulates vacation rentals to But cities struggle to keep tabs on an vacation rentals include these changes: ever-changing and but more than • Defined “permanent sometimes tough residence” as “the place to regulate class of 300 vacation where a person has a rental properties. rentals pop up true, fixed and permanent Adjusting the fees home and the principal is just one example when you go to establishment … to which, of how cities are www.airbnb.com whenever absent, has the trying to figure out intention of returning. to best regulation and choose and monitor these “Wilton Manors” • Required an emergency relatively new forms contact/responsible party of residential rentals. as a destination. placard to be mounted on a Wilton Manors wall inside the front door.

City Council members in September lowered the • Set a cap of 20 for the number registration fee from $750 to $500 of persons allowed to gather at a and reduced the annual renewal fee to vacation rental at one time. $300. Some vacation rental owners had complained the previous fees were too Council member Gary Resnick high and were deterring some owners wondered if the city could enforce any from registering their properties.

Its new territory for the city, and business restrictions in regard to vacation keeping track of vacation rentals is a rentals. He wondered if someone rented a

An example of listings of what’s publicly available in Wilton Manors through a quick search on AIRBNB. Image via AIRBNB.com.

vacation rental and then tried selling medical marijuana from the vacation rental if there would be a problem.

The city’s legal counsel said such a scenario would be a violation of city code.

One city resident wondered why the city couldn’t issue registrations for a year, instead of only issuing registrations from Oct. 1 of one year to Sept. 30 of the next year and requiring

all registrations to be renewed on Sept. 30, even if the vacation rental had just been registered in early August.

Vice Mayor Tom Green said he is opposed to vacation rentals in single family home neighborhoods.

“Duplexes, multi-family are fine,”Green said. “If people would just stay out of single family neighborhoods.” WMG

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Opinion

Fantasy vs. Reality WMG The Treasure Coast Planning Council’s plans for the city owned property next to City Hall is a pipe dream

Phone: 954-530-4970 Fax: 954-530-7943

By Sal Torre  Wilton Manors City Hall. Photo via the City of Wilton Manors, Facebook.

Fantasy is an idea with no basis in reality.

Reality is its blunt, truthful cousin.

For those who attended or have been following the Treasure Coast Planning Council’s public hearings on the future of the city owned property next to city hall, “fantasy” is the best description.

In a city that could not move ahead with a proposed 100-unit condominium by renowned Miami architect Rene Gonzalez on a 4.9 acre site located on the church property on NE 26th Street, I find it very hard to believe that anyone in attendance would think that plans calling for a 100room hotel, 100 residential and townhome units, along with parking garages, residents of our great city are sitting on a pot amphitheater, public space, and so much of gold we now call the Hagen Park/City Hall more could be anything even bordering on property.

All this talk about not just one hotel, but the realm of reality. two, comes just months after our city elders And that’s only Phase One. Phase Two calls for adjacent land were delivered the horrible news that a hotel purchases and additional hotel rooms, is not feasible in our city given current market condo units, residential micro units, and conditions. This harsh news was reality in all its bluntness, not easy to swallow, but better another parking garage.

Kim Delaney, the director of strategic than sugar coating with some unattainable development for the Treasure Coast fantasy.

In a world driven by market realities, Regional Planning Council stated that this scenario takes some creative license with long-term investment for such large-scale developments are far more density. Kim might call it likely to be grounded in creative license, but those reality than fantasy. One of us a bit more grounded Have you joined reality behind the City Hall in reality call it fantasy.

Master Site Plan is that the From the beginning the Gazette’s financial locomotive pulling presentation a few months Facebook page? this plan forward will be the ago when Delaney and attraction of a substantially company kept referring to Do so today sized publicly owned property the property in question as to join the and millions of dollars in an eight-acre site right here additional investment by on Wilton Drive, I knew we conversation. local municipal taxpayers. were in trouble.

There are many residents, This eight-acre site of myself included, that want public land they want Facebook.com/ to see increased density to peddle to developers groups/WMGazette throughout our city, already house our meaningfully and carefully. relatively new City Hall and We have a five-acre site sitting Police Station, our Hagen on NE 26th Street and NE Park Community Center, and so many other recreational amenities. 15th Avenue crying out for development.

The amount of property available for all this Right down the block we have an almost development is much less than those eight vacant shopping plaza that should have been acres we keep hearing about. In addition, developed years ago.

Then there’s the Shoppes of Wilton their plans call for the purchase of more privately-owned parcels around the current Manors which stands in limbo with many footprint at an additional cost of over $2 vacant un-usable retail spaces crying million. Not sure who would be asked to out for development. Andrews Avenue is pay for all this, but no need to worry about ripe for more density and new mixed-use such things since according to DeLaney, development. The Dixie Highway corridor

October 9, 2019 • Volume 6 • Issue 19 2520 N. Dixie Highway • Wilton Manors, FL 33305

Publisher • Norm Kent norm.kent@sfgn.com Chief Executive Officer • Pier Angelo Guidugli piero@sfgn.com Associate publisher / Executive Editor • Jason Parsley jason.parsley@sfgn.com Copyeditor • Kerri Covington

Editorial

Art Director • Brendon Lies artwork@sfgn.com News Editor • Sallie James

Correspondents

Sal Torre • James Oaksun

Staff Photographers

J.R. Davis • Carina Mask • Steven Shires

Sales & Marketing sits totally underutilized. There is no shortage of properties throughout our city offering enormous possibilities.

Dreaming is what moves us ahead.

Walt Disney’s dream created one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the world. But dreaming of a better tomorrow with all its possibilities, must be based on reality, not fantasy. Dealing with current market conditions, the effects of climate change, residents and taxpayer’s interest, and many additional factors all must be part of the discussion. Otherwise, dreams are not possibilities of what can be, but just a fantasy; and that is the blunt reality.

Now it is time for our elected officials and city management to take all this latest information gathered by the planning council and come up with a course of action for the Hagen Park/City Hall site. We should not look to squeeze everything that is needed throughout our two-square-mile city into this space that is much smaller than the touted eight-acre site. City stakeholders need to be visionary with bold and innovative ways, grounded in market realities, to bring needed development to all areas of our city.

Some bold methods might be needed to get existing property owners moving on very important parcels located around our city.

Condemning buildings that have sat vacant for years with collapsing storefronts, leaking roofs, boarded up windows might be a good start. Our city has a variety of tools at its disposal to make dreams a reality.

Many residents already know we are sitting on a pot of gold, but that pot of gold is not located off Wilton Drive next to our City Hall.

It is under the entire two square miles we call the Island City. Marketing the uniqueness of these two square miles will make life just better here. WMG

For ad placement in the Wilton Manors Gazette, contact 954-530-4970

Sales Manager • Justin Wyse justin.wyse@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Edwin Neimann edwin.neimann@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Clark Rogers clark.rogers@sfgn.com Accounting Services by CG Bookkeeping South Florida Gay News is published weekly. The opinions expressed in columns, stories, and letters to the editor do not represent the opinions of SFGN, or the Publisher. You should not presume the sexual orientation of individuals based on their names or pictorial representations. Furthermore the word “gay” in SFGN should be interpreted to be inclusive of the entire LGBT community. All of the material/columns that appears in print and online, including articles used in conjunction with the AP, is protected under federal copyright and intellectual property laws, and is jealously guarded by the newspaper. Nothing published may be reprinted in whole or part without getting written consent from the Publisher, at his law office, at Norm@NormKent.com.

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Colohatchee Boat Ramp. Photo via the City of Wilton Manors, Facebook.

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October 9, 2019

A Better Educated Consumer

Real Estate

By James Oaksun Several years ago, before I moved to the land of milk and honey (i.e., South Florida), I lived in the Northeast U.S. A frequent advertiser on late night television was an offprice men’s clothing merchant whose advertising tagline was, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” (He even got an article written about him in Forbes magazine!)

In the real estate market, I strongly believe this as well.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am happy to educate people myself, since I am a good teacher (so is said by many people; not for me to assess).

But I think it’s generally better to have clients who have an understanding up-front of the outcomes they want.

That’s been one of the main drivers of my writing here since I began this column. My hope has been that my regular readers gain a better understanding of market conditions, and trends in real estate, than people who receive information elsewhere – or not at all.

I know I have readers who are real estate professionals,

send me a quick email (to James@NewRealtyConcepts.com) if there’s a topic or two you would like to see a column (or two) about.

as well as readers who are prospective buyers and sellers of South Florida real estate. But this week, I’m not going to enlighten you.

Rather, I’m asking you to help enlighten me – and hopefully the other regular readers.

There are subjects about which I like to write, and that I hope people enjoy reading. I determine this by what I hear “on the street” and what I think people really should know as they navigate the real estate market.

But let me ask you: Are there kinds of things that you would like to hear more about? Topics I haven’t covered in as much detail or depth – or even at all?

Once again we are entering High Season here in Our Fair City – Wicked Manors is right around the corner now, after all. The Snowbirds return, visitors seeking second and retirement homes, and a change to a new (and I think better) way of life, descend… and current residents wonder whether this is the year to sell.

I am here to serve – to share my knowledge with you, and to make sure I am sharing the right things to help.

So today I ask you to reach out to me – send me a quick email (to James@NewRealtyConcepts.com) if there’s a topic or two you would like to see a column (or two) about.

I won’t mention your name (unless you want me to) and I guarantee I will respond to every email I receive.

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The month of Libra (which we have just entered as I wrote this) has a special energy about it. Let’s use that energy – together – to make all our current and prospective readers both educated consumers and great customers!

James Oaksun, Florida’s Real Estate Geek(SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Fort Lauderdale. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).

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