No easy solution to Anna Maria Island housing troubles
Anna Maria Island ranks as an Old Florida treasure that absolutely merits considerable preservation. Two century-old fishing and dining piers stand out as people magnets. The low-rise buildings stand in stark contrast to the towering hotels and condominiums that line most of the state’s beaches.
The state of Florida prefers to protect investors and private property rights over a disappearing lifestyle — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Still, it’s a shame to witness the island’s transformation into a place more and more dedicated to tourists. Residents are justifiably discouraged at the proliferation of vacation mega-homes as older, smaller homes are demolished.
The Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act shields landowners from laws, regulations and ordinances that “inordinately burdens,” restricts or limits an existing use or vested right on their property, as the cities of Anna Maria and Holmes Beach are finding out – the hard way. The 1995 law entitles property owners to some form of compensation, though apparently no money has been paid out in the dozens and dozens of Harris claims brought against the two cities.
Instead, settlement negotiations are occurring, thus avoiding costly lawsuits. The municipalities have been relenting on ordinances that restrict occupancy in vacation rentals. Anna Maria’s ordinance put maximum occupancy of a short-term vacation rental at two people per bedroom with an eight-person maximum. The city has been dealing with more than 70 Bert Harris claims — all about occupancy — with settlements already in hand on many. The ordinance in Holmes Beach caps occupancy at two per bedroom or six people, whichever figure is higher.
The problem becomes quite evident with new homes holding eight bedrooms, and the resulting crowd of vacationers creating noise, parking and traffic congestion issues. Quiet residential neighborhoods are disappearing. The barrier island is gradually losing its quaint identity.
The Bert Harris Act came about in response to government effectiveness in implementing zoning changes that would significantly diminish a property owner’s rights and investment potential. Those actions did not amount to a “taking” under an eminent domain case and other scenarios, so the governments did not have to compensate property owners for any losses. The Legislature stepped in with the Bert Harris Act to remedy what lawmakers found to be an injustice.
Anna Maria Island is suffering an injustice, too. Holmes Beach Vice Chairwoman Jean Peelen summed up the ongoing decline of a lifestyle: “What happens when more than one of these huge weekly rental houses go up on a residential block is that people start moving on because they bought their homes here to retire in, to live their lives out and then suddenly next door to them 22 people are inhabiting the house next door. All day long kids are screaming in the pools, at night people are noisy,” she told Herald reporter Amaris Castillo.
When longtime residents and homeowners tire of neighborhood decline, they’ll find investors and builders eager to purchase their homes and replace them with profitable and large vacation rentals. Island merchants and restaurateurs profit, too, with a larger pool of customers.
Can Anna Maria Island survive the onslaught? If restrictive ordinances are not the answer, does one even exist? Or are neighborhood makeovers inevitable? Surely, there a legislative solution, and we encourage Manatee County’s delegation to work on this.
This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "No easy solution to Anna Maria Island housing troubles."