More changes could be coming to the Anna Maria short-term vacation rental ordinance.
Anna Maria city attorney Becky Vose proposed a number of changes to the VRO at the Aug. 13 Anna Maria City Commission meeting at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
Two possible changes include redefining the term “vacation rental” and adding clearer guidelines for how to manage rental owners, agents and agencies that accumulate violations.
A vacation rental would be defined as any place that acts as a transient lodging establishment that doesn’t have on-site management.
Under the proposed definition change, motels operating without an on-site office will now come under the VRO. The previous definition only covered condominiums and homes.
In a July 28 lawsuit filed by Pine Avenue Restoration LLC, 306 Pine Ave., attorney Andrea Mogensen claimed that because the VRO didn’t apply to motels in residential neighborhoods, it is discriminatory to residential homes used as vacation rentals.
The changes also try to clear up and add some weight to violations to rental owners, agents and agencies.
At their July 23 meeting, commissioners expressed concern about people trying to circumvent the VRO by not paying fines or acquiring an annual rental license. They tasked Vose with clearing it up, and as Commissioner Nancy Yetter said at the meeting, adding “teeth.”
The teeth were sharpened by redefining the difference between an unresolved violation and a violation. A violation can occur from too many occupants, too much noise and not observing trash or pool-use guidelines, but, if an owner, agent or agency pays a fine for an issued citation, the matter is resolved.
However, if a citation goes unpaid or is ignored, the violation will be considered unresolved.
Too many violations — unresolved or resolved — could cause lost revenue for vacation rentals.
The newest draft of the ordinance outlines any property with a vacation rental license that earns three unresolved violations or 10 resolved violations within a year would lose its license for a year.
Owners, agents and agencies can lose their rights to conduct rentals for two years if they acquire too many violations. If an agent or owner obtains 10 unresolved violations within a year, they will be denied as a vacation rental agent for two years.
Anyone connected to an agency that acquires 20 unresolved violations within a year will be barred from acting as a vacation rental agent in Anna Maria for two years.
Though Vose created the three, 10 and 20 limitations, the five commissioners went back and forth about how many violations could accumulate before a license or agent should be suspended.
Commissioner Dale Woodland said he feared the commission was creating a law for a problem that didn’t exist. He said the majority of complaints at vacation homes are based on loud noise. Those complaints usually stem from ignorance to the rules, he said.
“A quick knock on the door and a request from a deputy usually fixes it,” he said.
The issue was tabled. The commission agreed it would leave the numbers alone for now, but would return to it if needed in the future.
If, as Woodland fears, more complaints start coming in and the maximum allowed violations are too low or too high, they can be adjusted.
Woodland said, “We’ll never really know what we need until we get there.”
The Anna Maria Planning and Zoning Board was scheduled to review the proposed changes at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, at city hall. The Islander went to press Aug. 17.
The commission will hold its first public reading at a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, and the final reading at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, after the scheduled budget hearing.