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Article Courtesy of Flagler Live
Published April 4, 2019
A bill (HB987)
that would substantially change laws controlling vacation rentals by
preventing local governments such as Flagler County or Flagler Beach from
regulating the industry cleared the second of three House committees today
even though several lawmakers who voted for it voiced concerns with the bill
in its present form, as did the bill’s own sponsor, J.W. Grant, the
Hillsborough County Republican.
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Flagler County
government, the Hammock community and Flagler Beach are
closely monitoring bills in the House and Senate that could
“preempt” local regulation of vacation rentals, reserving
them to the state and thus eliminate regulations Flagler put
in place in 2014 and Flagler Beach has had in place for many
more years than that.
The bill that cleared the Government Operations and
Technology Appropriations Subcommittee today would create a
“constitutionally protected” right for homeowners to rent
their homes for short-term vacationers. The constitutional
right would override the authority of deed-restricted
communities such as homeowner associations from restricting
or regulating vacation rentals. The bill would eliminate all
grandfather clauses, thus eliminating dozens of local
ordinances, including Flagler Beach’s and Flagler’s, that
currently regulate the industry. And it would place all
regulatory responsibilities in the hands of the Department
of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Hotels
and Restaurants.
The bill cleared the Business and Professions Subcommittee
previously. It has one more stop in the Commerce Committee
before heading to the House floor. A companion bill in the
Senate, SB 824, was on its first committee agenda on March
26, but was not heard. |
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Hillsborough County Republican Rep. J.W. Grant
speaking for his vacation-rental bill today before a subcommittee.
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The Legislature pre-empted all vacation-rental rules in
2011, with a grandfather allowance for ordinances pre-dating that year.
Locally, the law triggered complaints in the Hammock, where residents
neighboring properties used as vacation rentals charged that the character
of their neighborhood was changing, and that they were made to live next to
“mini-hotels,” as they frequently called the properties. Homeowners and
vacation rental agents defended the practice on property-rights grounds.
Airbnb and owner-occupied rentals gave the industry a further lift because
of the economic incentive encouraging homeowners to lease their properties
on short-term contracts.
Flagler government lobbied legislators to regain some regulatory authority
and succeeded in 2014, writing an ordinance that doesn’t prohibit short-term
rentals but gives the local government licensing and inspecting authority.
Ever since, lawmakers have been trying to repeal that law. They have fallen
short every year in what has become one of the most controversial
legislative battles of the last few years. According to a legislative
analysis, there are 14,874 licensed vacation rental dwellings in the state,
and another 6,000 vacation rental condominiums.
Grant today said he recognized the “sensitivity” of the bill as he
introduced it to the committee and assured committee members that it would
still undergo “significant” work. “There are things that I do not like in
the bill, there are things that other stakeholders do not like in the bill,”
Grant acknowledged. But, he said, the bill is designed to police “bad-actor
behavior” without taking property rights away from good actors. “DBPR will
make this work,” he said. He described the bill as “a significant change
from previous efforts,” though in the main, the bill hews to previous
attempts in previous years to pre-empt local regulations, in much the same
language.
The majority of those who addressed the committee opposed the bill. That’s
not necessarily an indication of where public or business sentiment is: many
of those who favor the bill signaled their support in writing but chose not
to address the committee, figuring further battles are ahead. Still, those
who did speak stressed what they saw as the vulnerabilities of the bill,
especially, for many, the absence of any provision that would preserve
homeowner associations’ right to police their own.
Mark Anderson, who represents Community Association Managers and represents
18,000 managers representing 14,000 community associations in Florida
(representing some 6 million Florida homeowners), contradicted Grant’s claim
that the bill was new: it failed to pass on previous occasions primarily,
Anderson claimed, because of its lack of protections for homeowner
associations. “A plain reading of this bill in two places
makes it very clear that this bill will place in conflict with those
duly-adopted deed restrictions,” he said, which are adopted by supermajority
of homeowners. “It will increase costs, because your associations will have
to hire lawyers to defend themselves against claims that this bill creates a
superior right, and in fact in the first section of this bill it creates a
constitutional right, for those who choose to rent their homes on a
short-term basis.” Others echoed Anderson’s concerns.
Casey Cook, who represents the Florida League of Cities, cast doubt on the
Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s capability of
monitoring and inspecting the industry, given its current workload, lack of
staff and funds, what he described as “inaction.” The department inspected
only 72 percent of hotels and motels last year, he said. It could never
capably inspect vacation rentals in addition to that, he said - rentals that
right now are being inspected by local governments, and that are required to
post local contact information of property managers. Those contact sheets
would have to be eliminated and replaced by state contacts, but the response
would not be like it can be now.
Cook said local regulations are intended to “largely making sure that when
people come and decide to stay in these facilities, that they’re safe to
stay in.”
Rep. Melony Bell, the DeSoto Republican, voted for the bill, but said she
was doing so primarily to advance it to the next committee and with the
expectation that it would be changed. “But,” she said, speaking as a former
city and county commissioner for a combined 22 years, “if the language does
not change between the third committee and on the floor, I will not support
it, because I just feel like it’s a home rule issue, it needs to be back in
the cities’ hands and municipalities and counties, that they regulate,
unless our stakeholders do come together, both sides, and we meet in the
middle of this.”
Unlike previous years, when Flagler County officials–county commissioners,
the county attorney, the county administrator–routinely appeared before
committees to make their case against preemption, these hearings have been
Flagler-free. The issue came up at this morning’s County Commission meeting,
when Jane Gentile-Youd, a Plantation Bay resident–and former commission
candidate–found a new reason to add to her list of grievances against County
Attorney Al Hadeed, criticizing him for not being in Tallahassee and before
the committee. But the commission had made clear several weeks ago that it
would not be shuttling personnel to the state capitol as it had before.
“It was at our request that Mr. Hadeed stay close to home and work on a lot
of other pressing issue and let us be the front people as far as the battle
against preemption on vacation rentals,” Commission Chairman Don O’Brien
said. He then projected better fortunes for the county in the Senate, rather
than in the House. “Our read at this point is that our bulwark is going to
be in the senate.”
Commissioner Greg Hansen said he’d sat down with Senate President Bill
Galvano’s staff, who led him to believe that the county’s position would be
preserved. “I think we have an advocate there,” Hansen said.
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