Kicking the Can No 2 - Lake Worth City Commission

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Kicking the Can down the Road No. 2

The next item under New Business was a discussion on short term rental options under our current Zoning code which only allows rentals of property for 60 days or more. In 2011, the Florida Legislature adopted changes to the Florida Statutes referencing short term vacation rentals affording their establishment within any City where prohibitions against them or regulations for them did not already exist. Per the Statute change, if a municipality did not have regulations within its code regarding vacation rentals prior to June 1, 2011, then none could be adopted nor could any changes be made to those that were in affect prior to this date.

Well, guess what? We have an ordinance that was established BEFORE the Florida Statutes and therefore we are grandfathered in. But now we have certain property owners (investors) who have come into our city to buy up houses to rent them out by the week or even the day and as a few from the public said, maybe next it will be by the hour. Prostitutes won't have to be hanging out on Federal Highway anymore. Vacation rental owners have threatened to sue the city. Is a law a law? Why is this city afraid to do the right thing?  Why do certain people, who know our laws, try to ignore them or change them once they are here? Why was this even on the agenda for discussion? Management paranoia and lawyers having to justify their existence.

The City says, "The present issue for the City is to decide whether to enforce its current prohibition on short term vacation rentals and begin code compliance proceedings against those establishments advertising themselves as such, which include as many as fifty (50) properties. Our ordinance has been fine until some investors decided to buy up properties on the cheap and use them as businesses in residential zonings. More and more properties are being scarfed up by corporations and hedge funds to do that very thing.

Then the city gives us the same ole mumbo jumbo and throws in "Oh we're afraid of lawsuits paranoia" and say, "If the City’s special magistrate upholds the City’s interpretation and decides that the operation of a short term vacation rental is a violation of the City’s code, the short term vacation rental owner will likely appeal such a decision to the Circuit Court. The Circuit Court, sitting in its appellate capacity, will then be asked to decide whether the City’s interpretation conforms with the essential requirements of law. If the City’s special magistrate and/or the Circuit Court finds the City’s interpretation is not correct, the City’s short term vacation rentals prohibition will be extremely limited."

The city is whacked out about potential lawsuits. They don't want any--even if RIGHT is on their side of the law.

This too will come back for more discussion on May 21.