With more hotels expected, city wants to improve standards
Longtime mom-and-pop inn owner wonders if regulations might be too much of a burden
In its heyday, the Lu-Rae Motel in Casselberry was one of many modest mom-and-pop roadside inns dotting U.S. Highway 17-92 in Seminole County that provided motorists with an inexpensive bed for the night.
Today, the Lu-Rae — tucked among a beauty salon, a church and a sign shop — is mostly a relic of old Florida lodging. Its bright orange sign in front of the 1951 building still touts “clean rooms.”
Now Casselberry leaders are looking at enacting tighter regulations for hotels, motels and extended-stay businesses, including the Lu-Rae and the city’s other hotel, HomeTowne Studios off Oxford Road.
But the Lu-Rae’s owner says he wonders whether the new regulations may be too much of a burden for his family-run business.
Casselberry officials say the new regulations are needed as the Central Florida area continues growing and more hoteliers likely will seek locations within Casselberry, about 25 miles north of Walt Disney World and the other tourist attractions.
“It’s to make sure that if a hotel does want to come in, that it is a quality type of lodging facility,” City Commissioner Anthony Aramendia said.
Last month, a company looked at building a hotel at the northwest corner of U.S. 17-92
and State Road 436.
But city officials realized Casselberry’s current ordinances lacked meaningful regulations pertaining to the lodging industry — including for motels that serve more as extendedstay facilities providing guests with lodging for weeks or months at a time.
“Currently, in our code we just have a definition for hotels and motels, but we don’t have any standards,” said Chris Bowley, Casselberry’s community development director.
Hotels and motels “are a housing alternative, and we want to make sure that their purpose and intent is to be more of a hotel.”
According to the proposed regulations a hotel or motel must always have at least one manager and one employee on the premises to respond to guests and for public safety.
No more than eight guests may occupy an extended-stay hotel room. The front doors to the hotel or motel rooms must be monitored by a security camera. And all guests at an extended-stay hotel must be registered, according to the proposed ordinance.
The proposals also provide benefits to hotels or motels that offer complimentary breakfasts and other amenities.
City commissioners are scheduled to consider the regulations in October.
The proposed standards would help ward off socalled fleabag motels or other rundown lodging facilities that could attract crime and become a drain on city resources.
“What we’re trying to do here is have some minimum standards,” Commissioner Bill Hufford said. “If we’re not careful, and our standards are too low, we might have motels with code issues, or we might have some with police issues, and those will end up taxing our city. In the long run it will be a burden.”
Casselberry’s two hotels have had little crime for the 19-month period from Jan. 1, 2018, through July 29, 2019, according to police reports.
At the Lu-Rae, there was one report of an assault and one of larceny during that period. The HomeTowne Studios had two reports of robberies, seven reports of aggravated assault and seven reports of drug activity.
City officials said upping the standards for lodging facilities would help attract additional hotels and motels into Casselberry. In turn that would lead to restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses opening in the city.
Ray Baksh, owner of the Lu-Rae, said he hasn’t seen the proposed regulations. He bought the old orange motel on the eastern shore of Lake Ellen in 2012.
The Lu-Rae has 19 rooms. Single-bed rooms run about $55 a night. Rooms with two queen-size beds are about $65 a night. Most of his guests have paid for extended stays, but occasionally visitors book rooms for a single night.
“We do have people — such as families — that come in because they are passing through,” Baksh said.
When Lu-Rae was built nearly 70 years ago, it was one of many privately owned roadside motels that provided travelers with a place to stay along U.S. 17-92. First known as Dixie Highway, the thoroughfare wound its way through Seminole County on its route between Jacksonville and Tampa.
But after Interstate 4 was completed in the mid-1960s and Walt Disney World opened south of Orlando in 1971, most motorists and hotels followed along to those areas.
Baksh said Casselberry should take more of an interest in preserving a historic place such as the LuRae.
“I can see what Casselberry is trying to do, and I understand that they are trying to establish their own identity,” he said. “But we have a historic building — a nice little historic motel — here. So let’s try to preserve it. There are people that like these old buildings and like staying at old motels. Because it takes them back in time.
“So why not preserve something that is part of Casselberry’s history?”