Short term rental ordinance continued to April 23
Council Member Bruce Butcher wants a final go for public comment. Council Member Dennis Boback wants condominiums included. Council Member Anita Cereceda doesn’t support the proposed ordinance at all.
The town’s short term rental ordinance was continued again after hours of public comment, a majority of which opposed the ordinance. The council also received what some members called a “barrage” of emails and phone calls against the ordinance.
Those against the ordinance sought the assistance of the National Association of Realtors to perform an issues campaign in which constituents could submit a form email to the town council stating the collective opinion. The result of the campaign was a flood of emails that drew ire from some council members. Some council members criticized the campaign because while the email text stated the sender was a resident, it wasn’t always true.
“That was pretty petty stuff. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Butcher said. “All those hundreds of emails, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know if they were legitimate.”
Butcher and Boback both said they didn’t read a majority of the emails that came through the campaign. Vice Mayor Joanne Shamp said she read them all.
Some of the emails were from residents – and town hall was filled Monday with residents, property owners and vacation rental managers against the measures. Council chambers was filled; overflow sat in the lobby and watched the meeting on TV.
Newly-elected Mayor Tracey Gore reminded the crowd in the chamber that boos or applause were not allowed – but it didn’t stop those out in the lobby from making some noise when a commenter said something they agreed with.
For the second Monday in a row, the equipment that operates the council meeting live streaming service was in disrepair. The meeting could not be live-streamed, but was still broadcast on Comcast.
Chamber of Commerce President Jacki Liszak and Royal Palm Coast Realtor’s Association Director of Policy Chris Lopez also spoke in opposition.
“The live feed’s not working. This is multiple meetings,” Liszak said. “I’m incredibly angry. The phone blew up this morning.”
Kathy Luce, a south island resident who said she’d come to the island since the 70s, made her first appearance at a council meeting to express her opinion during public comment. She said it was her first time watching the council interact.
“I’m not getting a good feeling,” she said. “It doesn’t sound like everyone here feels like you listen to them. It’s duplicitous regulations. For those who had a bad experience, you can call the police.”
Besides a number of residents and property owners in opposition, former mayor Dan Hughes,
After comments, the council spent two more hours debating on the ordinance, which was similar in essence to what they moved from first hearing in January. However, some members disagreed about whether or not condominiums would have to register with the town or not within the proposed ordinance. Boback didn’t believe it was fair to exempt condos. Town staff proffered an “opt-out” option, in which condominiums would have to register to opt out of the registration for each building and pay a fee, but would still have to use a specific number within rental advertising for the town to track and agreed to bring the ordinance back with both an “opt out” option and a no-opt-out option for the continued ordinance.
For any property found in violation of three or more times, that property would be subject to a renewal fee of 10 times the registration fee. Boback was concerned there could be “frivolous” complaints by neighbors of rental units who just didn’t like their neighbor.
A fee structure for proposed registration and renewal fees were posted in the agenda as a separate item under administrative items. This item was also continued to April 23 and was not discussed directly; however, Shamp said she thought the registration fee should be “nominal,” not a money maker, and be applied just to cover the administrative cost of the registration.
Cereceda, who has never supported the ordinance, said the proposed regulation would not solve the problems the council was seeking to fix. Noise complaints are an issue with the Sheriff’s Office.
“They have a number to call, it’s 911,” Cereceda said.