South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Mayor suggests allowing short-term rentals in one area: Beachside vacation properties
DAYTONA BEACH — For decades, property owners who have wanted to use their Daytona Beach houses and condominiums for short-term vacation rentals have run into a brick wall of opposition at City Hall.
Now Mayor Derrick Henry is proposing that the city make an exception to its ban on residential rentals for less than six months in just one part of the city: The beachside’s core tourist area.
Henry wants to allow the rentals for a few days, weeks or months between East International Speedway Boulevard and Oakridge Boulevard, and between Halifax Avenue and State Road A1A.
At Wednesday night’s City Commission meeting, Henry said it’s “a perfect place for Daytona Beach to offer vacation rentals.”
“The large number of smaller homes with easy access to the beach, and plenty of room for new businesses to accommodate these visitors in the surrounding area is a winning combination,” Henry said. “With changes happening now on Oakridge, and soon East ISB, Daytona’s beachside is poised for a boom.”
A majority of city commissioners said they’re interested in talking more about Henry’s idea and considering a formal proposal that would allow just that portion of the beachside to have short-term rentals.
For many years, the city has only allowed rentals for less than six months in areas of Daytona Beach’s tourist zoning districts and community redevelopment areas where hotels, motels and bed and breakfast inns are also allowed. Bed and breakfast establishments can also legally operate in a residential neighborhood if the area is an established historic district.
Many people have ignored Daytona Beach’s rules and rented homes and condos anyway through Airbnb, Vrbo and other online vacation rental companies. The city has cracked down hard on the illegal rentals in the past few years, hitting owners with code violations for not being licensed to rent their properties.
Making the case for the rentals
Henry said he’s thought about easing the rules for short-term rentals on the beachside for nearly a year. He said he realizes “this is very sensitive in our community.”
“We know there will be folks who will not be in favor of this,” Henry said.
But he believes it’s the right thing to do.
The city has struggled for decades to revitalize the beachside around Main Street and the Ocean Center with little success. Henry said the short-term rentals could be a catalyst to finally turn around the area between the Halifax River and ocean.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, Henry ran down a list of seven reasons why he maintains allowing vacation rentals “is an excellent way” to improve the beachside neighborhood known as Surfside Village and “boost our Main Street area.”
Henry said he wants to make Main Street, which is currently dominated by bars and restaurants, more of a shopping district and a place for festivals. He envisions creating places for vacationers to walk to from their rental properties.
He argues short-term rentals would encourage homeowners and investors to improve dilapidated properties. Increased property values would mean more money for public amenities and infrastructure, he said.
Henry also argues that vacation rentals would provide additional income opportunities for resident owners, and visitors staying in vacation rentals would bring new life to the area and patronize nearby businesses. He said that could spur more businesses to open.
He also points out that travelers who prefer a home setting to hotel rooms have to go to a different city now. And he said licensing, regulating and overseeing vacation rentals that try to stay under the radar would minimize the negative impacts they can have on surrounding properties.
What beachside residents say
Henry and local residents on the Mayor’s Beachside Committee went to 112 homesteaded properties between East ISB and Oakridge and either talked with the residents or left the flier that explains the mayor’s idea.
The group talked to 38 people in the homes, and asked them what they thought of the mayor’s shortterm rental idea. A total of 27 people in the homes like the idea, nine said they’re neutral on the proposal, and two said they don’t like it, Henry said.
One woman who lives on South Hollywood Avenue said most of the neighborhood already has short-term rentals, and she lives next door to one, according to the group’s survey.
Although it ’s getting better, the beachside still has a lot of dilapidated properties, Henry said. There’s also a low percentage of homesteaded properties between East ISB and Oakridge, he said.
Henry shared figures from the Volusia County Property Appraiser’s Office showing just 13% of homes between Seabreeze Boulevard and Main Street are homesteaded. From Main Street to ISB, the rate increases to a little over 24%.
South of ISB to Silver Beach Avenue, it rises to 29%.
Henry believes competition among short-term rental properties would spur owners to fix up their homes, and that in turn could attract more homesteaded homeowners.
“It would encourage those who own those properties to take it to another level,” Henry said.
The legal side
City Attorney Bob Jagger said he thinks the city would be on solid legal footing if it allowed short-term rentals in the center of the city’s beachside.
A state law passed in 2011 states, “A local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals.”
The city would be adding more rentals, not regulating or prohibiting them, Jagger said. And the city’s existing short-term rental limitations were grandfathered in when the 2011 law was passed, so those rules could remain in effect for the rest of the city.
“I’m confident the city would be able to defend a lawsuit,” Jagger said.