Veto this very bad vacation rental bill, Governor
For years, a battle has raged between local governments and the vacation rental industry, a relatively new but deep-pocketed lobbying force that rapidly acquired the loyalty of powerful lawmakers. The result has been a barrage of legislation intended to undercut local control to the point of near-collapse.
Caught in the crosshairs: Floridians whose neighborhoods are crumbling as speculators snap up homes to convert into short-term rentals — disrupting the peace of adjacent homes while driving housing prices sky-high. They, and their closest elected officials, have taken blow after blow for the past 13 years.
Soon, Gov. Ron DeSantis will have to decide whether to sign the latest hit: SB 280, which picks away at the few shreds of muscle that local governments have left.
He should listen to the growing desperation in the emails, phone calls and local resolutions by county and city governments across Florida, and veto this bill.
A growing problem
The vast vacation rental industry in Florida sprang from a fairly humble, home-swapping concept. But it quickly expanded, with platforms like Airbnb where potential rentals are listed on a strictly cash (or credit card) basis. It wasn’t long before investors started snapping up homes for conversions, often buying them sight unseen, rarely negotiating on price. As stories proliferated of disruptive rentals that brought temporary (and often irresponsible) neighbors into residential communities, some cities and counties passed ordinances setting standards for rentals, restricting them to areas where they wouldn’t disturb residents. or banning them outright. There was also increasing pressure on the operators of vacation rentals to pay their share of tourist taxes and fees.
Many in the quickly growing industry protested against the variety of local rules — starting with the financial requirements but quickly expanding to attacks on any local control of short-term lodging. They scored their first victory in 2011 with legislation that blocked local governments from banning or regulating rentals if they didn’t already have ordinances in place. Over the years, new laws further eroded local control, though a 2014 statute partially erased the pre-emption on city and county rules.
It’s also worth noting that big sites like Airbnb have taken steps to curb the use of vacation rentals as “party houses” where dozens of revelers cram into single-family homes and proceed to practice drunken disorderliness to the highest degree.
But it’s not enough, especially since the errant owners of these rentals can simply shift to another, less-regulated platform such as Craigslist.
To be fair, those new laws usually passed the duty to review and regulate rentals to the state. But the budget for the coming fiscal year includes funding for only nine agents to enforce vacation rentals statewide.
Predictably, that will result in weaker enforcement.
Less flexibility
The biggest blow is the inability of each city and county to adapt to the new industry in a way that fit each community’s character. The cost of that is obvious: A tourism-intensive economy such as Orlando obviously requries a different approach to rentals than a smaller bedroom community.
SB 280 isn’t as bad as it could have been. but it reinstates the pre-emption of local rules and rolls that exemption back to 2016. That would wipe out local bans on tourism rentals passed in places like Melbourne Beach and St. Johns County. It also hamstrings local controls in myriad ways, including city and county rules that require contact information for rental owners.
If DeSantis vetoes this bill, its proponents will probably be back, pushing for new legislation and brokering new compromises they never intend to honor. But this is an opportunity to defend Floridians against the constant erosion of their rights. The governor can best achieve that by saying “not this year” to the loss of local control and the indifference to the needs of the people he is sworn to defend.