JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — On a day when a bill stalled in Tallahassee – one that would give regulatory power regarding short-term rental properties to the state – Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham dug in his heels, telling First Coast News that authority must remain with individual municipalities.
“We’re not against short-term rentals, never have been,” Latham clarified. “What’s changed is, two years ago LLC corporations came into single-family home neighborhoods, bought those houses, gutted them, put in as many beds as they could. It’s just ridiculous and what’s happening is, it’s turning a house into Animal House."
It’s a debate that’s reverberating across Florida – First Coast News has been following arguments in Duval and St. Johns Counties – as owners of short-term rental properties have, by and large, clashed with the cities that insist one state rule can’t work for all geographies.
“I feel like the City of St. Augustine is trying to abuse vacation rental owners,” Blake Souder of St. Augustine told First Coast News last week. Some permanent residents in such neighborhoods as Lincolnville, where Souder owns property, have complained about transient visitors in close proximity.
The sentiment and battle lines are similar in Jacksonville Beach, where Latham says he’s seeing a trend that disturbs him.
“Bringing an LLC to come in there and buy a home and turn it into a hotel. That’s what we’re against,” Latham said.
But not everyone’s position would be apparent on the surface. One man we met, Greg Phipps, explained that he and his wife own their home in Jacksonville Beach. They also own two rental properties nearby. I had to ask him whether he supports ‘home rule’ – leaving regulation to cities – or Senate Bill 1128, the one that was postponed by a Senate rules committee Monday.
“As property owners, it’s our right to follow what the state has put in place already,” Phipps said. “And that is that you have the right to rent your property if you want to.
“I don’t ever want that to be taken away from me,” Phipps asserted.
His assessment of the overall situation contrasted with the mayor’s, as he said he and other rental owners he knows are sensitive to neighbors of those properties.
“If they ever have an issue or a problem, they can reach out to us any time,” he said, explaining that he’s given his contact information to those neighbors and has never heard any major complaint.
“We rate the people who rent from us,” he said of himself and his peers, also reasoning that individuals and even corporations that own short-term rental properties have a de facto incentive to maintain and even enhance property values.
“Even if a corporation buys a property, it’s an investment for them. So, again, they don’t want someone coming in who’s going to be a partier,” he said. “If the values of your properties end up going down because you’re not maintaining them, because they’re getting destroyed by people coming in, or even just by neighbors making bad complaints, then you’re going to have issues with it.”
Latham nevertheless bristled at the notion that corporations can acquire large numbers of properties in historically residential zones.
“As these organizations come in and buy big chunks of the neighborhood up, that culture goes away,” he said, noting that he has lived in the area half a century. “It’s putting our citizens in second place behind the out of town businesses, which doesn’t fly with me.”
Latham pointed out that, as of Monday evening, there was a slight chance that Bill 1128 could be revived in time for a vote in the current session, it would most likely be effectively postponed until 2021.
“What I’m going to propose is that we get the League of Mayors and the League of Cities to work with the legislature, to put something together that makes sense for everybody,” he said, contending that fewer than a quarter of the legislators in Tallahassee have municipal leadership experience. “Making decisions in Tallahassee that are going to affect Miami Beach just like Jacksonville Beach,” he said of what the bill would engender. “It doesn’t work.”
For more information about Senate Bill 1128, click here.