Tuesday night's commission agenda finally has something on it for a change. There are only two items on the Consent Agenda but there are 5 presentations and we can only hope that they don't take an hour.
One of the more controversial items is under New Business regarding short term rental units. It seems that some homeowners in this city are renting out their single family houses and treating them as if they are motels. People are coming and going all of the time.
In 2011, the Florida Legislature changed the Florida Statutes referencing short term vacation rentals allowing them to operate within any City where prohibitions against them or regulations for them did not already exist prior to June 1, 2011. Our code defines a Single Family Dwelling as “A detached building designed for or occupied exclusively by one (1) family, but not including transient facilities, nor more than one (1) kitchen”. The City also has interpreted that transient facilities are those that are leased, rented or otherwise held up as public accommodations for periods of less than sixty (60) days.
Right now we have about 50 single family units that are being rented out as if they are motels. Lake Worth's rules were in place prior to the Florida Statute and therefore, we should enforce our own code. We do not need one more rental in this city. In fact, our city code is more generous than what we have where I live. The policy in my condo is not less than 3 months and not more than 6 months.
John Rinaldi, Chair of the P&Z, says:
Investors are coming into the city in Residential neighborhoods, getting a rental license and renting them (houses) out on a nightly basis. Some are charging as little as $60 a night and others are $175 or more a night. Our code limits house rental to no less than 60 days. Vacation Rental owners have threatened to sue the city if we enforce our code. State law has deregulated vacation rentals but allowed towns with laws on the books like Key West to keep their rules. You can't make any changes to the laws that are grandfathered without losing the right to regulate. So the city is faced with either enforcing our 60 day law or totally deregulating rentals. If we go the route of deregulation anyone in the city can rent their home for as little as one night. Currently there are over 30 homes doing this. The property across the street from the Mango Inn rents for 3 nights. These are lodging businesses in our historic neighborhoods that are free to do what they want.
Our legal team is, once again, suggesting that if we don't cave in and allow owners to rent as they please, we could be faced with law suits. So? There will always be people wanting to sue. The Commission should not be dissuaded by this threat and should vote to enforce our laws on the books. We had a former commission that had no balls and allowed the billboard company to threaten us with a suit if we did not allow them to erect 6 billboards at I-95 going against our codes. Our attorney then caved in. No more. Do the right thing for Lake Worth. Just because you own a property does not mean you can do as you please.
3 comments:
It's very simple if you consider a vacation rental a business. For example, I buy 3 very nice homes in College Park that are currently well maintained with families living in them. My sole purpose for buying these homes is to create the business I will call Lake Worth Vacation Rentals, Inc. I never had any intention of living in these houses or this city. I now advertise my business on major web sites and anywhere else I can. My rates are published and i charge between $150 to $250 a night to stay in my homes. You can stay as little as one night or as many as you can afford. I am not on site and I don't live in the neighborhood. Folks check in like a hotel and check out. A cleaning staff comes in and out. I pay residential utility rates and I have none of the hotel inspections that other businesses have to deal with. I have found a great loop hole and now have a business in a neighborhood zoned residential. Life is good. The City needs to realize what unregulated vacation rentals will do to our residential neighborhoods.
The city needs to enforce the rules it has. These rules are not ideal, but it's them or nothing! I chose to live in a stable single family neighborhood. Would anybody out there feel secure if the house next to you had unknown people renting by the night or a couple of days? Is anybody reading this stupid enough to believe that any kind of legitimate background checks will be done on these strangers coming into our neighborhoods? The city can't properly enforce our existing OWNER OCCUPIED homes. They will never be able to enforce hundreds of non owner occupied ,by-the-night rentals! The present Commission is already responsible for flooding Lake Worth with the greatest number of low-income rental properties in it's entire history. Now they are considering turning the entire town into one big rental sewer?! Unbelievable. Instead of caving in to a couple of citizens who want to break our existing laws and have thrown the "I'm going to sue you" threat around , our Commission should follow our laws. Imagine that. Katie Mcgiveron
Who in there right mind would shell out $150 to $200 per night to stay in a home in one of the blighted drug and prostitute infested neighborhoods of Lake Worth. I went to a dinner party with some friends in College Park a couple of weekends ago and on our way home we saw several prostitutes flagrantly strutting their business. If it goes on there where there is probably the highest concentration of arrogant snob wanna be palm beachers, imagine in the neighborhoods that the rich white people don't live in!
S.Collins
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