Anna Maria officials unanimously pass vacation rental ordinance

ANNA MARIA -- The Anna Maria Commission on Thursday unanimously passed an ordinance on vacation rentals.

The 5-0 vote at the tail end of a second public hearing at Anna Maria City Hall was the latest step in an attempt to address the issue of single family homes being converted into vacation rentals. Critics say the practice is damaging the quality of life for many Anna Maria residents.

Ordinance 15-788 requires a license for vacation rentals and provides requirements for applications, inspections and vacation rental agents.

"Vacation rentals, left unregulated, can and do create

negative impacts within residential neighborhoods due to excessive noise, parking and traffic problems, excessive use and impact on public services and public works, and extreme size and greater occupancy," reads the ordinance Findings of Facts.

"This is a quality of life issue in my opinion," said Anna Maria Commissioner Dale Woodland.

The commissioner also had a message for real estate agents who conduct business in the city.

"We're not trying to be bad people," Woodland said, "but we are trying to preserve and protect our residential neighborhoods."

The new law covers everything from safety and operational requirements for vacation rentals to penalties for vacation rental owners, agents and occupants found in violation of the ordinance.

One section defines "quiet hours" and "pool hours" for vacation rentals. Quiet hours will now be from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily.

Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy had a problem with the policy limiting pool hours to 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily in vacation rentals. When his grandchildren visit, Murphy said the first thing they want to do is go into the pool.

"Nobody wants noise and screaming and yelling and things of that nature, but to say that they can't even use the pool, no matter how well-behaved they are ... that's how this is written," Murphy said. "That means you can't even take a dip at 8:30 in the morning. I can just imagine trying to hold my grandchildren back from going into the pool. Like I say, if we've got a noise problem, we can enforce a noise problem."

Officials then pushed back the beginning of pool hours to 8 a.m.

Anna Maria Commissioner Nancy Yetter said city officials don't want the vacation rental regulations but it's necessary.

"I think it's very important that we get as many people as possible to support this, for various reasons," she said. "With all that said, let's face it, we're here tonight because of the last seven years -- the greed and this behavior on the part of several different groups. That's what's caused us to have to come to this point."

Yetter spoke about two incidents over the Easter holiday weekend -- three noise violations in one day at a vacation rental and a homeowner who began building a bedroom and bathroom without proper permits. She went on to read an ad for a eight-bedroom vacation rental that ended with "the more, the merrier."

"This is why we have to have an ordinance: to protect what is left of our community but at the same time, we're not trying to shut the rental agents down," Yetter said. "We want cooperation and assurances that everybody is going to follow the rules as closely as possible."

Her comments were greeted with rousing applause from the audience.

Alan Ward, who said he has been coming to the island for 60 years, said Anna Maria Island is changing.

"The island is becoming so sparse with residents that it's just not what I thought it was when I purchased even 10 years ago and moved here four years ago. It's changing constantly," the 62-year-old resident said. "I wanted to live here the rest of my life. Now I don't know because I'm just sick of what's happened to the city."

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter @AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Anna Maria officials unanimously pass vacation rental ordinance ."