- Realtor NORBERT TUSEUO,
- former St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN, and
- former St. Johns County Commissioner WILLIAM ANTHONY McCLURE (political tourist who filed to run against Mayor Nancy Shaver in 2018. Footnote: St. Augustine residents are expected to vote for a charter amendment on March 17, 2020 to create a one year durational residency requirement, to end St. Augustine political tourism).
From Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
Opinion
Seidman: The fight against ‘hotel houses’ on barrier islands
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“The Big Top,” the newest “hotel house” on St. Armands Key, can sleep 12 or more visitors in six bedrooms. The house is adjacent to single family homes on a quiet residential street. [Photo Airbnb]
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The map shows properties owned by a development consortium on St. Armands and Lido Keys. At least two sites already have high-occupancy “hotel houses” and several others are under construction. [Map provided by Chris Goglia, St. Armands Residents Association]
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Contact columnist Carrie Seidman at 941-361-4834 or carrie.seidman@heraldtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarrieSeidman and Facebook at facebook.com/cseidman.
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“The Big Top,” the newest “hotel house” on St. Armands Key, can sleep 12 or more visitors in six bedrooms. The house is adjacent to single family homes on a quiet residential street. [Photo Airbnb]
HIDE CAPTION
The map shows properties owned by a development consortium on St. Armands and Lido Keys. At least two sites already have high-occupancy “hotel houses” and several others are under construction. [Map provided by Chris Goglia, St. Armands Residents Association]
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Contact columnist Carrie Seidman at 941-361-4834 or carrie.seidman@heraldtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarrieSeidman and Facebook at facebook.com/cseidman.
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By Carrie Seidman
Columnist
Posted Jan 23, 2020 at 6:01 AM
Updated Jan 23, 2020 at 8:15 AM
Residents are upset and alarmed over new high-occupancy construction built, operated and marketed for short-term tourist rentals in residential neighborhoods.
The newly-constructed home, located on a quiet Lido Key residential street, is elegant and palatial. It has six bedrooms and baths, an elevator, a wide balcony overlooking a hot tub, pool and manicured grounds and, leading to the second floor front door, a grandiose curved staircase, like something out of a movie scene.
On Airbnb, where you can book a reservation for just under $1,000 a night, it’s called “The Big Top.” Which seems a little ironic given that the circus-like atmosphere that often prevails when up to 16 visiting tourists take over the venue is exactly what residents of the single family homes nearby are objecting to.
“They are always seeking to maximize their vacation days (and nights) so there’s always lot of music, shouting, yelling, laughing and splashing in the front yard pool,” says Mike Adkinson, who lives next door to The Big Top. “When we decided to make this major purchase five years ago, we wanted to enjoy a quiet, peaceful, friendly neighborhood with mutual respect. That’s not what you experience when the full, often over-loaded house next door fills up with a different crew every weekend.”
At Tuesday night’s Sarasota City Commission meeting, Adkinson and other residents expressed alarm about the increasing number of high-occupancy, short term rentals on the barrier islands that are impacting everything from parking, noise levels and garbage to property values and the neighborhoods’ sense of community.
Chris Goglia, the incoming president of the St. Armands Residents Association — with support from the Lido Shores and Lido Key homeowners groups — suggested the city needs to enforce residential zoning codes and implement new safeguards to curtail the impact of these “party houses” before it’s too late.
“The fear is that’s it’s already irreversible,” Goglia said of residents’ concerns. “It’s certainly going to become so if we don’t act soon.”
“Hotel houses,” as residents have dubbed them, are new properties with six or more bedrooms which are purposefully built, operated and marketed as vacation destinations. Over the past year, two have begun operating on St. Armands and Lido Key and three more are near completion.
All the properties appear to be owned by the same development group, which owns seven additional properties on the two keys and approximately two dozen rental properties on Siesta Key (some also high-occupancy). The group includes a half dozen developers from three states and their connected attorneys, most protected by LLC (limited liability corporation) stature. They also operate three property management/rental agency firms that service the properties.
Residents contend the “hotel houses” constitute a prohibited use in a residential zone because they: operate as commercial businesses marketing transient lodging; fit the city’s zoning code definition for hotels (six guest rooms or more) and group homes (more than four unrelated persons, larger than the average family); and offer hotel-like amenities, such as cleaning, linen, shuttle and concierge services.
Though the repercussions thus far have mostly been limited to immediate neighbors, the entire barrier island community has taken up the cause. In the most recent annual survey of the St. Armands Residents Association, 88 percent of respondents said they would like the city to do something about the problem. Lido Shores has already fought a battle over a similar “hotel house.”
Goglia said he doesn’t hold much hope the city will take a stand that “hotel houses” are not permitted by code because it would likely bring legal action. Developer/builder Sean Kaleta, who is part of the development group, won a $1 million lawsuit against the city of Anna Maria in 2017 after a similar challenge in which he alleged discrimination.
“I think the best we can hope for is that we look at what other cities around the country have done and implement best practices,” said Goglia. Among the suggestions he offered were implementation of a rental registration system, making safety and other inspections required and contracting with a compliance and oversight business like Host Compliance.
In 2011, the City of Sarasota mandated a seven-day minimum stay for short-term rentals; the law was grandfathered in after the state later preempted “home rules” on rental regulations. However, in Tallahassee on Tuesday a new House bill (HB 1011) moved forward that would further undermine local municipalities’ ability to regulate rentals. (A similar bill has already cleared the first committee in the Senate.)
Several commissioners said they were hesitant to move forward before the state takes action and Commissioner Hagen Brody, mixing apples and oranges, complicated the debate by advocating for protection of short-term rentals in homeowner-occupied properties. (“Not the same thing at all,” said Mayor Jen Ahern-Koch, and I agree; I’m all for those.)
In the end, on a 4-1 vote, commissioners simply referred the matter to the city attorney for research and clarification. Ahern-Koch, who put the issue on the agenda in the first place, cast the dissenting vote, saying “it didn’t go far enough” and expressing disappointment that residents’ suggestions were ignored.
So ... full disclosure: When I moved here 10 years ago, the settling of my parents’ estate and the bottom of the housing recession coincided, allowing me to fulfill a lifelong dream of living within walking distance of “the sea.” I bought one of the small 1950s cottages remaining inland on Lido. At the time, my neighbors on all sides were families.
My house is one street over from where two of the “hotel houses” have already been constructed; a third is in the works. A couple months ago, a small older home like mine across the street was purchased by the same group and torn down to make way for a similar structure.
Since then, “For Sale” signs have appeared on two more of the few single-family homes remaining on my street. One has been in the same family for multiple generations. About once a week, I get an unsolicited letter or call offering to buy my home “full price, cash, no questions asked.”
This isn’t simply a case of “not in my backyard.” It’s a case of whether backyards like mine will cease to exist entirely.
Where is the balance between welcoming tourism and honoring Sarasota’s history and residents? Between preserving a sense of community/neighborhood and ceding the barrier islands to commercialism? Is it already too late?
“This issue is not over and done with,” Goglia insists. “But sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.”
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