Call them the “Seven Deadly Sins of Bradenton Beach.”
During the Sept. 30 town hall meeting, Mayor Jack Clarke told residents that staff is looking at five issues for a “quality-of-life” ordinance to regulate vacation rentals. Residents are telling him their concerns include noise, parking, trash, traffic and strangers.
Several dozen people attended the meeting at city hall, 107 Gulf Drive N., Bradenton Beach. Clarke addressed the staff’s progress on the ordinance. Commissioners agreed Sept. 17 in lieu of a construction moratorium to work on an ordinance regulating rentals.
Citizens recently banded together in favor of the moratorium in the hope of halting permits from entering the system for large, sometimes eight-bedroom homes.
Town hall participants quickly added design and overcrowding to Clarke’s list.
During holiday weekends, the number of people in Bradenton Beach can swell from 1,100 to more than 30,000. The popularity of Coquina Beach adds day visitors to that number.
Concerned about overpopulation, one woman said the ratio of tourists to residents is “way out of whack.”
Another, who focused on aesthetics and design of large vacation homes on small lots, said some of the tall, narrow homes look like saltine cracker boxes.
Whatever the homes look like, the goal is to remove trouble-making renters.
Clarke said the city can address these issues and others through an ordinance, Florida statutes, state and local building codes, law enforcement and code enforcement. The commission’s self-imposed deadline for an ordinance is Nov. 17. But commissioners scheduled first reading of an ordinance for 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, at city hall.
Clarke proposes to regulate short-term rental properties by requiring owners to adhere to new requirements and pay the $30.39 annual Bradenton Beach business license fee.
Rental businesses already are required to have Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation permits. Each vacation rental unit would be required to show proof of its DBPR permits before receiving a city business license.
Rental owners also are required to register and pay the county resort tax on accommodations of six months or less.
Step two would be to use new software to link the city and Manatee County governments to track resort tax payments. Clarke also proposes assigning fine amounts for verifiable violations of regulations governing behavior at rental properties — such as noise — that result in citations from the Bradenton Beach Police Department.
Fines of $200-$1,000 for first, second or third offenses might not affect the pocketbooks of many property owners who are charging $7,000 or more a week to rent the homes. But, Clarke said, denying them a permit after three offenses will get their attention, “especially these folks who never set foot inside the city.”
Often more tourists stay in a rental property than the owner intends. But, according to Speciale, the property owner must be present before a renter can be removed or evicted.
Many property owners live elsewhere. But Police Chief Sam Speciale said property owners can give his department prior, written permission to enter their property and remove trespassers without the owner’s presence.
Meanwhile, the city encountered a setback when Gail Garneau, the city’s lone code enforcement officer, recently went on medical leave. Code enforcement now operates within the police department and Speciale said his officers are working to become more cognizant of violations during her absence. Speciale added that Garneau is helping “where she can” from home.
Frank Harrison, a member of the planning and zoning board, is a leader of the effort to reduce the impact of vacation rentals on residents and a critic of how Clarke handled a citizen drive for a construction moratorium.
He attended the town hall meeting and said later in an email that while he heard some “positive direction, you will forgive me if I still have some reservations as to the outcome. The ingredients sounded great. It’s the chefs and their final recipe I’m worried about.”
Clarke said his position is “houses don’t make noise; people make noise.” He added that he believes the quality-of-life ordinance will tie everything together.
To view a copy of the Ordinance Please click here
Police Chief Sam Speciale is incorrect, property owners do not need to give him or his department prior written permission.
Providing the property is licensed with the DBPR, a property manager with a power of attorney to act on behalf of the home owner or indeed the home owner themselves can invoke Florida Statute 509.141 – Refusal of admission and ejection of undesirable guests; notice; procedure; penalties for refusal to leave.