Guest Op-Ed: Sen. Steube's Attack on Home Rule

(Sen. Steube just introduced a bill to strip cities of the right to regulate vacation rentals in any way - Writers of op-ed)

Sen. Steube:

We are the City Commission of the City of Holmes Beach. We are some of the people who have been on the front lines of the effort to bring balance between the short-term rental industry and the residents of our city.

As you know, in 2011, the housing disaster had hit Florida very hard. Over 20% of Floridians were underwater in their home financing. At that time, the vacation rental industry petitioned the State Legislature to step in to make it legal for homeowners to rent their homes or portions of their homes in order to be able to keep their homes.

The industry was rewarded when the legislature removed from all Florida municipalities the right to regulate vacation rentals in any way. Those cities that already had some regulations in place regarding length of stay were allowed to keep them in place.

Florida cities, assisted by the Florida League of Cities, lobbied the Legislature regarding the fact that this commercial short-term rental industry was operating in residential neighborhoods. Cities were not even permitted to address safety concerns in short-term rentals, such as the practice of packing 20 people in a six bedroom house with no fire alarms or fire-extinguishers, no less address concerns about neighborhood disruptions from those businesses.

In 2014, the Legislature rescinded a portion of the 2011 ordinance, now allowing regulation of short-term rentals, but still not allowing the prohibition of rentals or regulation of the length of stay.

This change allowed cities to regulate aspects of the industry, such as protection of the health and safety of both renters and residents. In our city, we created a vacation rental ordinance. The ordinance requires registration with the city, requires that the rental house meet all city, State, and FEMA codes, and requires the maximum occupation of the house be two people per bedroom

Meanwhile, the economic landscape of Florida has changed considerably, and the profile of short-term rentals has changed also from homeowners renting out their homes in order to keep them, to investment groups, national and international, funding the building of giant short-term rental homes (in residential neighborhoods).

The proliferation of large businesses in the middle of what were residential neighborhoods has resulted in two kinds of damage. First, residents of our quaint island began voting with their feet. They are moving off-island rather than live next door to a hotel. We have lost 20% of our voters in the last five years. For the first time ever, less than 50% of the children in the island school live on the island. For the first time ever, two of the historic churches are considering closing and moving off island. Civic clubs, municipal organizations all are threatened by the loss of residents. Our snowbird industry is becoming extinct as business takes over the neighborhoods.

Why does this matter? It should matter to the tourist industry. Particularly in Manatee County, what draws people here primarily are the beaches. They can go to beaches anywhere around Florida, but they are drawn to this quaint little island. People stay here from all over the world because they love the funky neighborhoods, the free trolley, the opportunity even to stay in a house in a neighborhood rather than a hotel. The more that residents leave this island, the less it will have the character it now has.

The short-term rental industry constantly cites private property rights as the justification for limiting regulation of the industry. We say that residents who actually live here, or are snowbirds here, also have private property rights. They bought houses in residential neighborhoods expecting they had the legal right to quiet enjoyment of their property. That property right went away went the giant houses went up next door, or behind them. When 20-30 new people move in every week–and these are people who are on vacation and have paid a lot of money for the seven bedroom house, they lose that right.

It is not clear when the private property rights of an industry took precedence over the private property rights of residents, but that is what you appear to believe.

As stated at the beginning of this letter, our city has worked hard to create the balance between residents and short-term rentals, and we think we have done a good job so far. Your proposed bill would return us to 2011, where cities were helpless to even protect the very visitors who come to stay here. Your bill is a slap in the face of the hard work done by the island cities to create the balance we all want.

We urge you to retract your proposed law.

Signed,

The City Commission of the City of Holmes Beach