Separate Fact from Fiction: Read the Ordinance

The orchestrated parade of letters urging the rejection of the proposed Marco Island short term rental ordinance is certainly interesting. Even more interesting is that the purported authors of those letters have either never read the language of the proposed ordinance, or instead have chosen to purposefully misrepresent what the ordinance would require if enacted.

The proposed ordinance is posted on the City’s website, and I would encourage everyone to take a few minutes and read it before jumping to conclusions. It does not, as many letter writers have incorrectly stated, outlaw short term rentals. Instead, it establishes a registration and enhanced regulation process for those owners of single-family residential homes who choose to rent out such properties for periods of less than thirty days more than three times each year. It requires the owner of such properties to meet minimum standards for life safety, requirements that frankly would apply to any landlord, hotel or other owner of lodging property. It would seem logical that any tenant of such properties would want and demand these various life safety requirements. The new ordinance also requires the owners to make available to tenants information concerning our Marco parking regulations, trash and recycling pickup and rules, turtle nesting season regulations, and other already existing requirements. With respect to noise standards, the new ordinance incorporates our already existing noise ordinance rules but does add a reasonable enhancement with respect to daytime noise rules.

In short, this carefully constructed proposed ordinance puts in place common sense standards and strikes a fair and reasonable balance between owners who wish to continually earn short term rental income and all other residential homeowners. No residential homeowner will lose the right to engage in short term rentals. But new minimum standards, many of which already exist to varying degrees within our existing ordinances, will be applied and enforced.