Like-minded citizens came together Sept 24 in Bradenton Beach.
Joanne Keir and Priscilla Von Ahnen spoke in recent months against what they consider the scourge of large vacation rental properties in Bradenton Beach. But when they arrived at the feeling they weren’t being heard by the city commission and mayor — particularly after the 4-1 vote Sept. 17 to reject a construction moratorium — they decided to share their resolve.
“I see the essential importance of this moratorium,” Keir said. “I see the benefit because it supports the regulation process. A moratorium and rental regulations are not mutually exclusive. A moratorium stops building now and supports the process.”
Keir, a 15-year resident of Bradenton Beach and Von Ahnen, a resident for 23 years, organized a meeting Sept. 24 at the Annie Silver Community Center, 103 23rd St. N., Bradenton Beach. Despite short notice, 20 people showed up and discussed the next step in their quest to have the commission relent and impose a moratorium on construction.
Supporters say that will give the city some much-needed time to consider how to regulate rental property.
Residents upset with commission votes have recourse in the city charter, former Mayor Bill Shearon told the group. Registered voters can force the commission to vote on an ordinance by generating a petition with 50 signatures. The commission is not required to enact such ordinances. But, Shearon said, any ordinance they reject in that circumstance will appear on a subsequent election ballot.
Moratorium supporters are saving the charter petition option for later, largely because Commissioner Jan Vosburgh placed a proposal on the next meeting agenda. It calls for a four-month moratorium on construction of homes with five or more bedrooms in the Residential 1 and Residential 2 zoning districts — basically where families live — plus a moratorium on construction of all duplexes with three or more bedrooms per unit.
Vosburgh cast the lone vote Sept. 17 in favor of a moratorium.
“I changed it so that it would be a little bit more of a compromise,” Vosburgh said Sept. 25 of her moratorium proposal. “I just thought we should take a timeout to see which direction we are going to go. I am pretty optimistic. I really do think it will pass this time.”
The next commission meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at city hall, 107 Gulf Drive N., Bradenton Beach.
“We have a plan and I think the people here are willing to put their energy into backing the moratorium and following up,” Keir said.
Keir said she was happy with the input from the attendees. Among them were Shearon — a candidate to regain his seat as mayor on the Nov. 3 ballot — and Commissioner Janie Robertson, who is running for re-election in Ward 3 against Ralph Cole.
Clarke and Cole did not attend.
City attorney Ricinda Perry apparently advised Commissioner Ed Straight not to take part in the citizen’s meeting to avoid any appearance of conflict with Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Laws.
Robertson was the only commissioner in attendance.
But two members of the Bradenton Beach planning and zoning board, Jim Lynch and John Metz, attended the meeting.
Metz said he doesn’t recall a conversation about the “quality-of-life” ordinance that the commission and mayor discussed Sept. 17 to regulate vacation rentals.
There presently is no ordinance on a moratorium or rentals set for discussion by the P&Z.
Before the group “for the moratorium” holds further discussion, they likely will attend a town hall meeting, called by city officials to hear input on the possible “quality-of-life” ordinance to regulate rental properties. Clarke proposed the ordinance in lieu of the moratorium and commissioners agreed Sept. 17 to proceed — after rejecting the moratorium.
The town hall meeting is scheduled for 9-11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at city hall. Clarke is expected to lead the meeting.
Efforts to reach Clarke by phone Sept. 25 were unsuccessful.
While the moratorium proponents who attended the Sept. 24 neighborhood meeting ultimately favor limiting large vacation homes and discouraging the volume of people they accommodate, they agree that enacting a moratorium is the appropriate first step.
Some feel betrayed by Clarke, who invited a number of residents to a citizens’ advisory committee meeting Sept. 9 at city hall, encouraged them to bring their moratorium proposal to the Sept. 17 commission meeting, but instead denied the need for a moratorium and proposed creation of an ordinance regulating renters.
Von Ahnen said the scheduling of the town hall meeting surprised her. “And I’m glad for it,” she said. “I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.”
She’s hoping Clarke is looking for input from residents at his meeting. She maintained he shouldn’t ask staff to write rental regulations without first finding out “what the people want.”
Von Ahnen said the city should proceed with a moratorium “just in case we get turned around again like before” when she and others were blindsided by Clarke’s turnabout.
“We don’t want to get caught with our mouths open again,” she said.