Some familiar questions are resurfacing for former Holmes Beach Commissioner Jayne Christenson.
City code compliance supervisor JT Thomas told The Islander Feb. 8 that Harmari, a program the city uses to monitor short-term rental postings, detected a listing of Christenson’s property at 132 49th St. as a one-bedroom unit for rent.
Christenson has faced questions surrounding her residency since she first campaigned for a commission seat in 2020, when people asked about her use of her Holmes Beach property — where she claimed she resided — as a vacation rental.
Due to her qualification for a homestead exemption, Christenson, who co-owns the property with her mother, Sally Owen, can only rent the home for up to 30 days a year.
Christenson previously attempted to certify her single-family home in Holmes Beach as a duplex in order to establish a rental unit but city code requires vacation units be rented out in their entirety — not as a unit or bedroom within the dwelling.
Christenson’s property was found in violation of city code for advertising and renting a portion of the property as a vacation rental in December 2021.
In that instance, she claimed a “verbiage” error in an online advertisement as a one-bedroom vacation unit and came into compliance within a week of the violation being posted.
Thomas said that since Christenson had previously been found in violation, the new listing would go “straight to a special magistrate” for a finding of fact about the unit’s use.
“There’s a lot of stuff going wrong with that particular unit,” Thomas said. “That unit is not a duplex. … If she wants to rent her house, she has to rent her house — the whole thing.”
“You can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” he added.
Thomas said he investigated the unit after Harmari detected the listing and found renters who claimed they had been allowed to stay there for free.
He said code compliance staff would keep an eye on potential rental activity at the property over the next month.
Thomas said the rental matter would be brought before the city’s magistrate at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 28, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive.
Christenson did not respond to a Feb. 9 email from The Islander.