Homeowners like Tony Schwartz consider themselves good neighbors in their Punta Gorda communities, even if they do have vacationers in and out of their properties.
“We have a total of three properties that are active and we've never had one complaint on anything,” said Schwartz.
Schwartz is among a growing number of property owners renting homes on popular sites like Airbnb and VRBO. He asked city council members to think twice about adding more requirements to the 100-plus short-term rentals registered with the city. Several property owners said too many rules would make it tough to compete.
“The hotel industries don't want us here. A lot of industries don't want us here but we feel we're offering a value to the community,” said Schwartz.
Punta Gorda city leaders debated a proposed 12-page ordinance to increase regulations—such as making property owners add special lighting inside homes to help with emergency evacuations in the dark and increasing owners’ responsibilities for bad vacationers.
Council member Mark Kuharski says not all short-term rental owners are respecting their neighbors.
“It is the number one comment that I receive on council. I’ve got this problem next to me and can’t you do something about it. And the answer is not really. You’ve just got to call in a code violation and we don’t know if we can get a hold of the person to make sure them responsible for it.”
While one city official says there were only a handful of complaints against these properties, Kuharski wasn’t buying it.
“Our reporting is inaccurate because I know of several reports to code and the police on the street that I live on that are not on that report,” said Kuharski, “So where are they?”
Mayor Lynne Matthews says the proposed rules felt like government overreach because property owners are already required to register with the state and meet their requirements.
“I read this ordinance over the weekend and my head was ready to explode. I don't think we need a 12- page ordinance to regulate vacation rentals,” said Matthews.
The council seemed to agree that a shorter list of requirements could be something that would benefit both city residents and owners of short-term rentals. City staff is working on a new proposal that could include maximum occupancy numbers for homes and improving the city’s ability to track down owners.
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