If lawsuits weren’t on commissioners’ minds before, they are now.
Holmes Beach commissioners continued their conversation April 30 regarding a proposed set of regulations for short-term rentals.
At the meeting, a Tampa resident spoke to commissioners “on behalf of concerned Holmes Beach business owners,” reminding them the regulations enter uncharted regulatory territory rife with opportunities for legal challenges.
Commissioners also heard from city planner Bill Brisson on construction trends and construction limits for short-term rental home sizes and occupancy under the proposed regulations.
Brisson’s report supported the moratorium and the need for size regulations based on research pulled from the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s database and the city’s business tax receipts.
His survey showed the overwhelming majority — estimated between 79 and 88 percent — of five or more bedroom houses built between 2009 and 2014 are vacation homes.
Homes built in that period with four or more bedrooms show a similar trend — 67 percent are confirmed short-term rentals. Brisson estimates the number to be closer to 75 percent, accounting for four homes that he suspects are rentals but lack business tax receipts.
Brisson said commissioners have a strong case supporting the moratorium on new construction of homes with four or more bedrooms as being “outside the character of residential neighborhoods.”
The argument is even stronger for limiting new construction on homes with five or more bedrooms, he said.
The numbers culled from Brisson’s research are backing not only the moratorium passed by commissioners in January, but limitations on the size of new homes intended to be short-term rentals in a proposed set of regulations on vacation rentals.
Commissioners reached a consensus to move the draft of the regulations forward, including a limit of four-bedrooms plus one sleeping room for new construction.
Commissioners are adding language to include a sleeping-room to ensure their size limitations. Commissioners are concerned “creative” alternatives would lead to four-bedroom homes with multiple living rooms, dens and offices.
Like Anna Maria’s vacation rental regulation ordinance passed in April, Holmes Beach is proposing a certificate program for short-term rentals. Property owners and rental agents would need to fit certain criteria in order to offer a short-term rental.
The proposed size limitations sparked conversation on grandfathering existing properties, which city attorney Patricia Petruff recommended to avoid litigation.
“There’s nothing short of demolition for people to change the configuration of their five-bedroom home,” said Petruff.
Including those homes in the regulations could be considered a prohibition, which is pre-empted by state law. Petruff said the regulations should apply only to new construction.
She offered the example of an older couple owning a four- or five-bedroom home. If when they die, their children want to use the home as a vacation rental, they could be denied the right.
Grandfathering existing properties would allow reasonable use, Petruff said. However, the homes would be bound by occupancy limits of two-people per bedroom, which already exists in the city’s comprehensive plan.
“This affects tens of millions of dollars of real estate value. And those tens of millions of dollars are coming out of somebody’s pocket and somebody’s pocket is going to want to be compensated. Whatever that looks like, I just want the commission to know those business owners are going to be looking for that someway,” said Aaron Thomas of Tampa.
Thomas did not provide an affiliation or group, but rather said he was asked by concerned Holmes Beach business owners to attend commission discussions to offer his opinion on the proposed regulations.
Thomas told commissioners the regulations could be challenged under state pre-emption of inspections, advertising, design and alterations of short-term rentals.
He also suggested the regulations would amount to an equal protection violation when similarly situated people are treated differently, meaning residential property owners and vacation property owners.
Lastly, he added, the regulations would need to pass a rational basis test.
“There’s got to be a rational relation test and the fact that a city may not like rentals isn’t really rational. Unless you can point out specific reasons, which other cities around the country have tried and failed to do, that’s going to be an issue you’re going to run into,” Thomas said.
Commissioners held a consensus to use four bedrooms plus one sleeping room as a rule, but were divided on setting a maximum occupancy limit of eight or 10 people.
Anna Maria’s maximum occupancy limit on short-term rentals is eight people.
The discussion was continued to a future work session.
It is probable that “concerned Holmes Beach business owners” refers to investors who live out of the area and see the Island as a “cash cow”. They don’t care about the Island except that it can earn them a lot of money. They don’t care that my annual tenants on 54th Street have to put up with the two “vacation rentals” that now occupy the lot across the street where one old couple used to live in a single family house. They don’t care that forty (40) people can stay there now for a few days and party long and hard and park their cars wherever they will fit. They don’t care about people traipsing up and down the street at all hours talking so loudly they can be heard inside when the TV is on. They don’t care that it can take over an hour to get from the Wells Fargo Bank to the Anna Maria Island Bridge or that people think they are cleaver by taking a side street and then try to sneak in line ahead of you. They don’t care about the people who have come here for a peaceful vacation on a quaint little island but now have to put up with a circus atmosphere. No, they don’t care about that and a lot more, they just want more money. They are just greedy SOB’s who don’t care if they spoil the quality of life of people who live on the island or those who come for a cretain atmosphere that is laking in other island communities. That is what they are taking away and we need to stand up to those money grubbers and tell them that if they want to come here fine but, they can’t destroy what is and has been Anna Maria Island and what is a quality of life regardless of how much money the invest.