Holmes Beach city commissioners agreed at their Sept. 27 meeting to move forward with setting parking standards for vacation rental properties and requiring rental agents to check out their renters.
The issues are not new, said Mayor Rich Bohnenberger, but the number of rental properties is growing almost weekly.
After resident Tom Sabow of the 200 block of 68th Street said he and his wife were selling their house and moving elsewhere, commissioners reacted quickly on ordinance changes.
Sabow said he and his wife have lived in Holmes Beach for more than 10 years. In the past few years, there have been more rental properties constructed or converted from residential to rental near their home as people sell and move elsewhere.
“The last few years, we’ve been dealing with renters who don’t obey the rules,” Sabow said.
He said he’s talked to a number of rental agents about loud noise after 10 p.m., trash in the streets on Sunday and Monday, too many vehicles for small driveways and cars parked in the rights of way. Sabow said one night he counted 11 cars parked at a house about the size of his 1,480-square-foot home.
“We’ve called the police many times, and they’ve been great,” Sabow said. Police come out and the noise stops, but it starts again the next night or the following weekend, he said. He also complained about loud, foul language coming the neighboring rental house.
Sabow stressed he was not against renters or rental agents, just those who don’t follow city rules. He asked commissioners to find a way to require rental agents to give renters a list of what they can and can’t do in Holmes Beach, including details about trash collection, parking procedures and the noise ordinance.
He also suggested requiring better background investigations of the renters. Sabow said a couple might rent a house with five bedrooms and claim they have four kids, but on Friday night throw an all-adult party at the house.
Sabow said the agents should be fined, because it’s their responsibility to know their client.
Bohnenberger agreed that the proliferation of rental properties is causing problems.
Developers are building four-and-five-bedroom homes with parking for only two cars, then putting the house on the short-term rental market, Bohnenberger said.
While code enforcement deals with the trash issue, commissioners will discuss an ordinance amendment regarding parking requirements at a vacation rental, the mayor said.
City code limits the number of unrelated people who can stay overnight in a rental unit, but enforcement is difficult. As more rental properties come on the market, more complaints go to police, he said.
“We didn’t see this coming. We are trying to cut if off at the pass before we have an even bigger problem. Twelve people in one house for a week is happening, and that’s a lot of trash,” said Bohnenberger.
City staff is preparing background information for commissioners when they discuss the problem at a work session, the mayor noted.
Commission Chair Sandy Haas-Martens said renters are supposed to be checked out by the rental agents, but “it doesn’t happen.” She said she heard a story about one couple who told an agent they had two children with them, but that night there was a party of quite a few adults at the rental property.
The mayor said Sabow is not the only person to complain, and the Holmes Beach population has declined since 2000, yet all the while residential units have increased.
Bohnenberger said he complained to the University of Florida about its recent study that found Holmes Beach had a population of 3,840. The mayor said he told the university it under-reported about 1,000 people, but the university disagreed.
In 2000, Holmes Beach had a census of about 5,000 residents.
On another matter, commissioners rejected a proposal from the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to place BACVB advertising at city trolley stops.
Haas-Martens said the city paid for most of its trolley shelters and she likes their look without signs.
The county can do what it wants with trolley shelters it owns, but not with those paid for by Holmes Beach, she said. Commissioners unanimously agreed.
The next commission meeting was scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11. Haas-Martens said it might be canceled because of a light agenda. She said she would make an announcement this week about the meeting date.