The Bradenton Beach Commission was divided by its first major vote with a newly elected mayor and two new commissioners.
Commissioners Dec. 3 put a road block on a proposed moratorium on the construction of new homes with five or more bedrooms and duplexes with three or more bedrooms on each side.
The proposal, put on the agenda by Mayor Bill Shearon, was based on similar ordinances in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach and previously proffered by a citizens’ committee supporting a moratorium for Bradenton Beach.
“This is basically a timeout,” Shearon said, adding that it would halt new construction only in residential zoning districts. He had promised to put the proposal on a meeting agenda, if elected, in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh made the motion to adopt the moratorium. But the motion and the discussion died for lack of a second by Commissioners Ralph Cole, Jake Spooner or Ed Straight. As mayor, Shearon neither can make motions nor second them.
After the meeting, Bradenton Beach resident and moratorium supporter Bill Vincent said the failure of others to second Vosburgh’s motion, conduct a fair hearing and call for a vote “means the three commissioners are off the hook on the record.” They did not have to state their position on the moratorium proposal.
“And that’s hiding,” he said.
Vincent said he and others on the citizens’ committee, in addition to 168 petition signees, “are extremely disappointed by the inaction of commissioners” who killed Vosburgh’s motion.
“In discussion, they consistently misrepresented the intent and purpose of the moratorium,” he said. “They applied it to action as opposed to a timeout. They misrepresented the fact of the quality-of-life ordinance consistently.”
Among the other two cities on Anna Maria Island, the city of Anna Maria is operating under a moratorium on new construction and remodeling for homes with five or more bedrooms. It expires May 11, 2016, but commissioners are working through the issues and may repeal it within the next four to six weeks, a city spokesperson said.
Anna Maria’s vacation rental ordinance is being challenged in court based on selective restrictions, but the Holmes Beach ordinance has no challenges.
Holmes Beach adopted a moratorium on building permit applications for residential units in the R-2, R-3 and R-4 districts with four or more bedrooms. It expired Oct. 31 on adoption of an ordinance limiting bedrooms or sleeping rooms to four.
Vosburgh suggested that if commissioners didn’t pass a moratorium, developers rejected elsewhere on the island would flock to Bradenton Beach to tear down older homes and build large — sometimes having eight or more bedrooms — new homes and the subsequent rowdy behavior of “transient renters” could jeopardize residents’ quiet lifestyles.
“We have not done our job looking out for our citizens,” she said. Speaking of her ward in the southernmost area of the city, she said “This is the very narrowest part of the island and the impact is much greater for us,”
Cole asked if the city was trying to stop vacation rentals. He also questioned the inclusion of “sleeping areas” in the proposal. “Any room in your house can be a sleeping area,” he said. “How do you determine what a bedroom is?”
Spooner pointed out that the quality-of-life ordinance will regulate vacation rentals. All commissioners need to do is set the fees and “that addresses the behavioral problems,” he said.
Straight said he’s “not quite getting the timeout thing.” He talked about the previous commission — on which he and Vosburgh served — passing the QOL ordinance Nov. 5 and the impact of adopting a moratorium and again discussing rental regulations.
Straight asked if discussing further regulations while enforcing the QOL ordinance might cause a legal problem.
City attorney Ricinda Perry responded that with a moratorium in place, commissioners would be able to enforce the quality-of-life ordinance. However, she said a moratorium could jeopardize the QOL ordinance, as anyone who sues the city over a moratorium likely would sue over the QOL ordinance as well.
She stressed a moratorium would impact the owners of every future home in the city for six months, not just those built as vacation rentals.
But the other island cities put construction limits on permits for homes with four- to five–or-more bedrooms — not all construction.
Vincent said Perry routinely steers conversations in the direction she wants to go, rather than being a counsel to the commission. “It seems that quite often she’s a director,” he said.