The St. Johns County Commission voted 5-0 on Feb. 5 in favor of drafting an ordinance to review for the regulation of short-term rentals.
The ordinance would deal with issues arising from the proliferation of short-term rentals in key areas of St. Johns County.
The St. Johns County Growth Management staff presented the discussion item on the agenda, which they had based on input regarding compatibility issues related to the rentals. The discussion item was comprised of material gathered from an online survey, a recent community meeting and research conducted on similar jurisdictions. Staff defined short-term vacation rentals as Airbnbs, VRBOs and vacation rentals.
The intention of the ordinance is to address issues of over-occupancy, trash generation, parking, noise complaints, traffic increase and fire and emergency evacuation risks associated with street parking. In addition, the county could enforce registration of responsible owners to contact them in the event of complaints, as well as the tracking of payment of tourist development taxes. The inspection and enforcement of the plan, however, remains to be discussed in terms of cost to the county. The new draft would investigate the details regarding these issues and present different options to be reviewed by the commission.
Public comment was mixed during the meeting.
Vivian Browning, president of Vilano Beach Main Street and member of the National Association of Realtors, was hesitant to enact an ordinance quickly.
“Many use vacation rentals to earn money into retirement,” Browning said. “Those of us that have vacation rentals, we are just regular people. We feel like this needs more consideration, not action today.”
Other realtors, like Christina Chandler of TurnKey Vacation Rentals, said, “I would like to echo my colleagues and say that most vacation rental owners would be open to regulation as long as they are common sense and easy to follow and easy to enforce.” Chandler also added that, “Typically vacation rentals are the prettiest homes on the block, that’s because we want them that way. We want to protect the homeowner’s asset.”
Jeb Smith, county commissioner of District 2, suggested that more information be gathered in terms of cost analysis before proceeding. He also stated that he would like to see “exceptions be considered” in terms of condos and homeowner-occupied rentals.
Butler Beach resident Leslie Shapiro said there needs to be some regulation with the rentals, which she believes have gotten out of control. She asked that the commission “not allow this to continue” and to “please save our neighborhoods.”
“We are a neighborhood without neighbors,” Shapiro said.
