Why do lawmakers keep hammering away at local control of vacation rentals?
By now, it’s as much a part of the Legislature’s annual ritual as the ceremonial hanky drop at the close of every annual session: Lawmakers debate new and worse ways to hamstring local governments’ ability to keep an eye — and a leash — on short-term vacation rentals.
“We have a slightly different product than you saw last year,” bill sponsor Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, told the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Wednesday about the bill he’s sponsoring (SB 280). “The whole goal is to lay out a uniform set of regulations for vacation rentals. I believe the legislation provides tools for local governments within that registration program.”
Well, sure, if “uniform” means “uniformly weak” and “tool” translates into “a baseball bat upside their heads.” This bill would significantly hamper the ability of cities and counties to shut down the worst violators — the ones that are shattering the quiet of neighborhoods across Florida.
Why won’t lawmakers accept the reality: Different communities have different views of vacation rentals. What is appropriate in the neighborhoods clustered around theme parks — some of them constructed for the purpose of becoming vacation rentals — might not work in a quiet mainland neighborhood in Ormond Beach, or a downtown Orlando high-rise. As more and more properties are converted to full-time vacation rentals, the disruption these revolving-door residences can cause becomes more obvious.
We give platforms like Airbnb and VRBO credit for doing their best to crack down on the worst of the worst among the property owners registered with them, including efforts to curb the use of vacation rentals as party houses that sometimes draw dozens of pleasure-seekers into Florida neighborhoods. They’ve also worked hard to ensure that rental properties pay hospitality taxes. Those two companies don’t represent the full array of vacation rentals in the state, however. And their desire for uniformity doesn’t justify restricting local governments’ ability to discipline irresponsible property owners who show no regard (or even knowledge) of local rules.
This bill isn’t as blatant as past attempts, but it’s sneakier. For example, local officials would be allowed to require vacation rentals in their jurisdictions to register with the city or county — but restricted from suspending or revoking those registrations, even for chronic violators. To suspend a particular property’s ability to operate for as little as 30 days, for example, city and county officials would be required to prove five or more violations on five separate days during a 60-day period.
Many smaller cities have only one code-enforcement officer, who sometimes has other duties. They don’t have time to stake out one local property.
Any other enforcement would have to be through the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation. That state agency does have offices throughout the state, but not nearly enough to handle a task of this magnitude.
“There is no indication whatsoever … that any additional resources are going to be given to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and yet you want to take the lion’s share of responsibility and hand it over to an agency that is objectively woefully ill-staffed and underfunded? And you think that your constituents in Indian Rocks Beach and mine in Sunny Isles Beach are going to be better served because of the level of uniformity coming out of Tallahassee?” asked Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat.
So imagine this scenario. A full-time resident of a house in a suburb must abide by the terms of his HOA, or be fined. In many areas, he can’t park too many cars on his front lawn, can’t violate trash regulations, can’t host giant parties that blast music into the night. But local authorities won’t be able to shut down vacation-rental owners who break any of those rules.
Florida communities have already lost the ability to say “no” to vacation rentals if those bans weren’t in place before 2011. They deserve, at least, the right to shut down rule-breakers that make their own residents miserable. The Senate rejected legislation that wasn’t nearly this bad last year. They should shut it down immediately this year.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editorin-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com