In the News – Clarification regarding Vacation Rentals
With the assistance of the Association’s legal counsel, Kevin Hennessey, we have asked the City of Anna Maria for clarification regarding the ability to rent vacation homes as we have been doing so for the past 20 years. While we are not sure if there is an official answer to be had we understand the Anna Maria City real estate market has been devastated since the building moratorium and discussions began regarding the legality of transient vacation rentals in the City of Anna Maria.
The last City commission meeting, December 18th, included good dialogue between the City and a small group of the community attempting to put a rental ordinance into place. The majority December 18th meeting involved a discussion revolving around maximum occupancy once we reached the vacation rental work session agenda at the end of the night. There was no discussion of making vacation rentals illegal and the discussion included good dialogue regarding our past vacation rental discussions with the community. In addition, a great addition was made to the end of the work session where comments from the public would be heard. Mr. Hennessey expressed the need for clarification and suggested he would follow up with a request to the City. In addition, Larry Chatt did address the commissioners and commented the issue at hand is extremely complex and suggested we work to create licensing and in necessary inspection. Mr. Chatt suggested with these two items data could be generated and we could better understand what issues are being generated by rentals so we could find solutions to problems being created by vacation rentals.
Attached is the letter which was sent to the City requesting clarification on rentals in Anna Maria.