TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough County commissioners advanced a draft ordinance this week that would create county rules for short-term vacation rentals, including a registration requirement for owners.<\/p>\n
The county has more than 3,000 short-term vacation rentals. Commissioner Harry Cohen said the county currently has no county regulations specific to short-term rentals, though state rules are in place.<\/p>\n
Cohen brought the proposal forward after hearing from residents in the Baycrest community. Under the draft ordinance, vacation rental owners would have to register with the county, pay a $200 fee, and designate a 24-hour representative to manage the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this ordinance is a great first step,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
The proposal also includes a $50 charge if an owner does not show up for an inspection. The county believes the registration fee would generate $600,000 a year.<\/p>\n
“Our code enforcement and sheriff’s office representatives feel that this will be a very effective way to have accountability at a house where things are going on beyond the scope of a short-term rental,” said Cohen.<\/p>\n
Some residents in the Baycrest community said the proposal does not go far enough.<\/p>\n
Samantha Freeland, who moved to Baycrest 14 years ago, said the neighborhood has seen an increase in short-term rentals and related problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had instances of drunk people climbing fences of my neighbors,\u201d Freeland said.<\/p>\n
Freeland said the number of short-term rentals in the community has grown quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in January, we had 96 short-term rentals. We are now up \u2014 within seven months to 121, and it is only going to get worse unless these regulations start taking effect,\u201d Freeland said.<\/p>\n
Baycrest resident Mark Kiddo said neighbors want additional requirements, including mandatory safety inspections before registration and progressive fines for violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is happening is it\u2019s falling short of actually being something,\u201d Kiddo said. “What we want to see is a strong ordinance that actually protects.”<\/p>\n
Kiddo said residents want strict penalties for owners of short-term rental properties after repeated violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it gets to the point that they violated so many times, we\u2019re asking that the license or the registration be pulled,\u201d Kiddo said.<\/p>\n
Cohen said the ordinance is intended to create a starting point that can be adjusted over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you do something like this, you start out with a framework, you see how it goes and you adjust it as you move along,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Cohen is expected to meet with Baycrest residents at the end of the month. Hillsborough County commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
If approved, commissioners want the rules to take effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough County commissioners advanced a draft ordinance this week that would create county rules for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2031,274,36321,558,4252,276,115,135,137,136,278,14104,1316,835],"class_list":["post-365801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-tourism","tag-business","tag-dalia-dangerfield","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","tag-tourism","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}