The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday directed its administration to draft an ordinance regulating short-term or vacation rentals in the city, such as Airbnbs, to address mounting complaints from permanent residents who say the fabric of their neighborhoods is fraying from the disruptions of such rentals turning single-family homes into party houses.
The council’s unanimous direction follows last week’s veto by Gov. Ron DeSantis of a bill that would have foreclosed on local governments regulating short-term rentals more than the state does. The bill would have forbidden any regulation applying to short-term rentals that would not apply to all other residences, in essence making regulations impossible.
“The city of Palm Coast can draft a new ordinance if it seems fit,” City Attorney Marcus Duffy said, “as long as the ordinance does not prohibit short term rentals does not regulate the duration or frequency of the rentals and follow state requirements for sanitation standards, inspections, Florida building code and Florida fire codes, things of that nature.”
Residents have been appearing before the council in increasing numbers in recent weeks to complain about noise, trash and in-and-out traffic generated by vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods, particularly in Palm Coast’s C-Section. It is a prime zone for rentals because of its canals. Rentals can run for anywhere between $80 to $400 a night in the neighborhood. Until now, the council could only respond to the complaints with the recurring defense: “Our hands are tied.”
That changed last week. “This has been something that I’ve been harping on since taking the seat, so I’m glad that we saw a veto come through and I hope that we can get consensus from this dais to move forward with getting an ordinance drafted,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said. She looked for and received consensus for a reasonable approach that also protects the quality of life of residents, who “have the right to enjoy their homes without some of the disturbances that we’ve been hearing lately from the short term rentals.”
Pontieri cited St. Johns and Flagler County’s ordinances as possible models for Palm Coast. Flagler Beach has strictly regulated short-term rentals thanks to an ordinance it was allowed to grandfather in when the state first pre-empted local regulations in 2011 before relinquishing that authority again in 2014, after Flagler County led the lobbying for that. Short-term rentals in Flagler Beach are allowed only in the center of the city. In Palm Coast, any residential property may be turned into a short-term rental.
In Flagler County, a short-term rental property owner must pay an initial fee of $400, and an annual renewal fee of $200. But the fee may apply to a group of properties for which a single owner applies.
“We need some type of mechanism for these Airbnbs and the Vrbos–maybe I shouldn’t name them by name–but the short term rentals to be able to fund the enforcement mechanism,” Council member Nick Klufas said. “Otherwise, our ordinance is just going to be kind of words on paper.” He is looking to the administration to provide “what we have available to us as far as an arsenal of fees.”
Danko is part of the consensus seeking a short-term rental ordinance. But he would favor a mechanism that would allow those who file complaints about rentals to remain anonymous, rather than require the complainant’s name to be recorded. “I’m wondering if there’s a way for us to get around that when it comes to this issue,” he said, “because that would certainly make those in the public feel a lot better about complaining about something.”
While state law does not prohibit anonymous complaints, the law in 2021 changed, prohibiting code enforcement officers from investigating any anonymous complaints, which has the same effect as all but requiring that complainants file their name. The only exception to the law is if the violation is “an imminent threat to public health.”
Klufas’s proposed work-around would not negate the law’s requirement. “I was hopeful that we could have a dedicated unit that was just for the short term rentals and then potentially that could get us out from the whole reporting mechanism,” he said.
Residents continued to voice complaints Tuesday. Eric Josten, a C-Section resident, told the council that 60 households have formed the Canal Community Coalition, with more expected in coming weeks, to address short-term rentals. “They are not operating on a level playing field with other businesses,” Josten said. “Many of these people are from out of state and just own homes in Palm Coast. They don’t care about our local laws. They don’t care about our city. They don’t really care what’s happening here. I’ve been a business owner literally my entire life since I was 10 years old. Many of the businesses I’ve owned every time required licensing. Some of those licenses were very expensive, very expensive for a good reason.”
Another member of the coalition said he moved to Palm Coast 20 years ago–to Christopher Court–and all went well until a year ago, when short-term rentals changed the atmosphere. He presented a six-point proposal of rules for short-term rentals, some of which, like number of guests, could violate state law. (The county limits guests to 10 for a single-family house.)
Another resident said the city’s code enforcement as currently structured is “ineffective,” giving short-term rentals 48 hours to respond to complaints, when the response should be immediate. He also called for more decibel readers in the sheriff’s patrol cars. And he complained about homesteaded properties being listed as short-term rentals, though the law does not prohibit a homesteaded family home from renting a room or two for vacationers, while the homesteaded owners remain in the house, or live in it more than six months in a year.
“It’s been a nice place to live until these vacation rentals stormed in,” yet another resident told the council. He did not say where he lives. “We currently have seven within walking distance. We have two bordering us one behind and one in front. These two party houses have bright night lights, screaming, doors slamming, loud music, drugs, drinking, piles of garbage left out all week, multiple cars, trucks, alarms and disoriented dogs barking all hours of the evening.”
