Home Rule activists are pleasantly surprised.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: June 28, 2024
Host: To the surprise of many, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill on Thursday that would have taken regulation for vacation rentals from local communities into state hands. Neighborhood activists and some city officials in this area are elated. We have the details.
Barbara Ehren: Completely surprised. You know, our history of bills preempting home rule, I was looking at that track record and saying, “Oh boy, you know, there’s no way, he’s gonna …” I thought he was just going to let it run its course. I thought he would not sign it. That’s what I thought was going to happen. I thought he would just not sign it and then it would come into law. So I was quite surprised and very pleased and thankful that he vetoed it.
Johannes Werner: That’s Barbara Ehren, co-founder of Save Florida Home Rule, a Manatee County-based organization that is mobilizing the grassroots against the dozens of bills passed by the state legislature recently that pre-empt local decision-making. Although she is not exactly a friend of the governor, she was thrilled about his veto.
Senate Bill 280 passed the senate by a wide margin, but only narrowly the House, in what was one of the closest margins in this past legislative session. The bill would have established short-term rental occupancy limits, but it would also have limited the number of inspections and fines, and taken much regulating of Airbnb and Vrbo properties into state hands. It also included an exemption for local vacation rental regulations that were enacted before 2016. Flagler County, where one of the bill’s sponsors is from, would have benefited from that exemption.
But it would have affected dozens of other cities and counties throughout Florida. Not surprisingly, the governor’s office apparently got hundreds of calls on this. One of the callers was the mayor of the town of Anna Maria. Dan Murphy told the Anna Maria Islander weekly last week he heard from the governor’s staff that they consider the bill bad policy, and in particular the carve out for Flagler County.
So, DeSantis vetoed SB 280. In his letter to the Senate, he argued that it would have created bureaucratic red tape for property owners, but also that it would have created a one-size-fits-all state regulation and prevented local governments from enforcing existing ordinances or passing any new ones.
To be sure, an onslaught of laws preempting home rule have already passed during the state legislature’s last three sessions, thanks to the Republican supermajority. More than 80 preemption bills, according to Ehren, have passed the governor’s desk from 2021 to 2023, and they have become law. That’s either with DeSantis’ signature or by default.
Barbara Ehren
Barbara Ehren, of Save Florida Home Rule, lives in Anna Maria Island. She says the bill would have taken control from local entities that best understand local needs.
BE: The whole island has a lot of vacation rentals, and we have density requirements. For example, how many people can occupy a particular house depending on size, et cetera. Every community has to do what it needs to do to maintain its quality of life and balance — and I think this is important to me, as a resident — we have to be able to balance hosting people who are here on vacation, and we’re happy to have them here, but we have to have reasonable restrictions so that our way of life is not totally up-ended when people come to visit us.
And so I think that’s an important consideration for cities, is how to balance the needs of the residents with the needs of the vacationers. I think every city, every municipality has to look at itself and make those decisions. For example, Bradenton Beach, it is my understanding that Bradenton Beach has a much higher percentage of vacation rentals to residents. So, they have fewer residents than we do in Anna Maria, and more vacationers. So it is conceivable that they may need different rules from what we need in Anna Maria. So that’s the whole point of home rule, is to allow municipalities to take into consideration their unique needs. And so we are happy to be able to continue doing that, and we do appreciate the governor’s veto.
JW: Earlier this year, the City of Sarasota went ahead and expanded its short-term rental ordinance, ignoring the state bill. We sought comment from City of Sarasota commissioners, but did not get our calls returned before deadline.
Reporting for WSLR News, this is Johannes Werner.
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