Bye-bye Airbnbs in Lake Worth Beach?
The City Commission could soon decide whether to crackdown on illegal short-term rentals in the city.
A state law prohibits most Florida cities from regulating Airbnb, Vrbo and other short-term rentals, but Lake Worth Beach officials say they are exempt.
City commissioners could soon decide to start cracking down on an estimated 456 illegal short-term rentals in the city.
In February, city commissioners directed staff to draft an enforcement plan, which will help them determine whether to crack down. Officials were scheduled to outline their strategy on May 2, but on April 27 the city announced that the plan had been deleted from the May 2 agenda and will be rescheduled at a future meeting.
According to agenda material, here’s how the plan would work:
Violation courtesy notices will be issued to all identified rentals followed by formal Notices of Violation after ninety (90) days should those properties identified not come into compliance.
Should properties remain active as rentals, they would be brought before the Special Magistrate after another ninety (90) days.
For those properties brought before the Special Magistrate, another ninety (90) days would be recommended for them to come into compliance.
Should a property continue to operate or be held out as a rental after the three (3) consecutive ninety (90) days notices, then the property would go into a running daily fine.
Documentation for properties being held out as rentals would come from the tax collector’s office, the Palm Beach County list of business tax receipts, and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations as well as other reputable public accessible sources, city officials said.
Why it’s a controversial topic: The issue is a touchy one in Lake Worth Beach, which has no downtown hotel and relies on short-term rentals to provide lodging for visitors who in turn spend money at city shops and restaurants.
But some bad apples have created noise and nuisance problems and eroded the sense of neighborhood in areas away from downtown.
Can the city really regulate Airbnbs? Some advocates for short-term rentals are skeptical the city has the legal power to regulate them. They want officials to cite and explain the codes and laws that supposedly outlaw short-term rentals.
This link identified 456 properties tentatively identified as short-term rentals in Lake Worth Beach.
For more background on the city’s experience with short-term rentals, check out this story and this story.
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The full agenda can be found here.
Thank you, Joe Capozzi, for the fine coverage of important topics. I don't subscribe to the local newspapers (do we have print media these days) and we don't have true local coverage for Lake Worth Beach. My condo fees have sky-rocketed since I moved in a few months ago and the snowbirds think they are the most important game in town. Homeowners get short-shrift.
As a fellow journalist, with about twenty years in the business, you might want to do a bit more research before writing these things. Power, in Florida, flows from the STATE down. Not the CITY up. Pre-2011, there was no STR law. Lake Worth claims that they have a “grandfathered” ordinance. They do not. They withheld that they changed the ordinance in 2012, by removing the dates from the public record. A FOIA request, very useful, shows that they changed the ordinance in 2012. No grandfathering.
The State is fast-tracking SB 417/HB 833, in the legislature. While it still could die, whatever refinement would show up next year is the part of 5 years of sculpting an STR law that makes everyone a bit happier.
While cities would be able to communicate with the state about code violations for noise, trash, etc, a plus for Lake Worth, CITIES WILL STILL NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO SET LIMITS ON COMMERCE FOR STRS. Period. End of story. That power remains with the state. The state cannot single out STRs, or Home Based Businesses (HBBs) from any other licensed business entity.
Anyone who has been harassed by code enforcement, who holds a valid license with the DBPR, and has their tourism tax, and county LBTR, is free to operate their business currently. Should 714/833 pass, that will still be the case, but local code enforcement can conduct EXTERIOR inspections of the property for city-based code violations. The DBPR will still be responsible for interior violations.
Hosts are organizing to create groups that set higher standards. Most of them are hard-working people, or retirees, who do it for augmentary income, to pay their mortgage, or property tax.
Short-term-rentals (You really have to stop calling them ‘Airbnb’ since that’s just a booking company.) that work on mainstream platforms ARE licensed (required). The only “unlicensed” STRs are ones that operate either direct, or through What’s App, Craigslist. The best way to get rid of the “bad actors” is to work WITH the quality STR owners, and use the EXISTING ordinances for noise, trash, parking, etc.
The DBPR can’t suspend STRS that don’t exist in their system. STR hosts, working WITH THE CITY, can help educate ones that don’t know better, and support the city in dealing with owners who don’t obey the city rules.