There’s another potential hurdle on the path for the Anna Maria short-term vacation rental ordinance.
A lawsuit filed Feb. 9 with the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court comes from Florida Gulf Coast Vacation Homes and Anna Maria Vacations Inc.
It seeks a permanent injunction against the VRO.
The suit alleges the city’s VRO will cause a collapse of the vacation rental business in the city and the ordinance “will have a drastic effect on home values and rental availability in the city.”
Attorneys Randolph Smith and Aaron Thomas of the Najmy Thompson law firm in Bradenton filed the suit on behalf of Joe Varner, manager of Florida Gulf Coast Vacations and owner of Anna Maria Vacations.
In the VRO, the city restricted the maximum number of rental occupants per residence or unit to eight.
The suit alleges by restricting the number of rental occupants, the city creates a smaller pool of potential renters who can afford to vacation in the city. A smaller pool will result in fewer homes being rented, creating less revenue for the vacation rental business. The suit claims the VRO may force property homeowners to sell their rental homes.
“The forced sale of many vacation rental homes in the city and overall reduction in the number of guests who visit the city will inevitably lead to the collapse of the short-term vacation rental industry in the city,” the suit alleges.
The suit also alleges that renovations to homes with more than four bedrooms will create an economic burden on property owners. Many vacation rentals in the city have been built with enough bedrooms to accommodate larger families.
The city does not limit the number of bedrooms in a rental home, but it does regulate a maximum of two people per bedroom.
There is a five-year grandfather clause in the VRO allowing homes with more than four bedrooms to honor contracts for rentals that exceed eight rental guests. Applications for the exception must be submitted to the city by April 1.
The VRO goes into effect April 1, but it could be pushed back. Applications for grandfathered contracts and registration must be submitted before the effective date.
This suit is the third lawsuit against the VRO. Some rental property owners and the Anna Maria Island Vacation Property Association brought the first lawsuit In May 2015. That suit was dismissed without prejudice in December.
The second suit, brought in July 2015 by Pine Avenue Restoration, was dropped in January.
According to Anna Maria Vacations, it manages 237 rental units on the island, including 69 in Anna Maria, of which 32 have more than four bedrooms.