’Just legalize the thing’: Lake Worth Beach leans toward allowing short-term vacation rentals

LAKE WORTH BEACH — There are hundreds of listings for short-term rental homes in Lake Worth Beach on internet sites such as Airbnb and Vacation Rental By Owner.

Which is odd considering that renting property for less than 60 days is illegal in the city and subject to code enforcement citations.

But that may be on its way to changing.

A majority of the five-person city commission indicated during a work session on May 21 that it favors overturning an ordinance prohibiting short-term rentals within the city boundaries.

>>PHOTOS: Palm Beach County beaches and Juno Beach Pier reopened for the first time Monday

>>What you need to know, Friday, May 29

>>Pre-pandemic property values rise, offering windfall for local governments

>>The road to finding our way back to the lives we had before coronavirus

The business community, especially owners of downtown shops struggling even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, appear overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the rentals, citing the expected increase in tourists and visitors.

Residents bring a more mixed bag of opinions. In written comments to the city commission, some complained that illegal short-term vacation rentals had turned their quiet neighborhoods into scenes of loud, all-night parties attended by scores of party-goers.

During their virtual discussion on May 21, commissioners agreed that a loosening of vacation rental rules can not take place without stringent regulations, impact-type fees and oversight of the properties and their owners being put into place.

Short-term rentals may be illegal in Lake Worth Beach, but even city officials acknowledge they widely exist. City Manager Michael Bornstein said last week that the city’s code enforcement department is not “aggressively” going after property owners renting out their homes, but have primarily “been responding to complaints” from neighbors.

An Airbnb spokeswoman said she couldn’t provide a total number of homes in Lake Worth Beach that employ the company’s site. When hosts register on Airbnb, they must certify that they will comply with local laws and regulations before they list their space.

“Let’s just legalize this thing...,” Commissioner Omari Hardy said. “Keeping this absurdity that we have today where it’s illegal in the city but everybody’s doing it, we know they’re doing it, and we’re pretending it’s not happening, but from time to time, we pick and choose individuals that violate [the rental ordinance] and we take them before the magistrate -- that’s not a sustainable state of affairs.”

Florida law forbids local governments from imposing regulations against the short-term rental business.

But there’s a caveat. Local laws -- like the one Lake Worth Beach has on its books -- that regulated or outlawed the rental industry and were in effect before the state legislation took effect on June 1, 2011, were grandfathered in.

Shayne Regan, owner of a fashion design business on North Federal Highway, told the commission that allowing vacation rentals “was the last possible hope of businesses downtown.”

Cheryl Spearling, a realtor and owner of a vacation property, warned the commission that Lake Worth Beach doesn’t “want to be known as a seaside town that kicked out vacationers and tourism.”

Vice Mayor Andy Amoroso, Commissioner Herman Robinson and Hardy all voiced their intention to support overturning the city ordinance. Mayor Pam Triolo indicated her backing while Commissioner Scott Maxwell advised a go-slow approach, saying “that all parties need to be at the table before we start making concrete decisions.”

Triolo admitted she called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office several times about a problem vacation rental in her College Park neighborhood where, she said, 300 college students showed up one night for a party.

Triolo said that people that rent the homes are “treating it like a hotel as opposed to they’re [staying] in a single-family home in a neighborhood.”

One solution proposed by Triolo would require owners of the vacation rentals to live within a certain distance of the property. Owners of longer-term rentals -- 60 days or more -- in Lake Worth Beach are mandated by city regulations to have a “responsible party” living within 50 miles of the home.

Robinson said he was in favor of a provision that would require a “heavy, heavy, heavy deposit” from property owners that could be relinquished if calls to service from PBSO and code violations began to pile up.

No indication was given when the issue might come before the commission for a vote.

jmilian@pbpost.com

@caneswatch