Vacation Rental Doubles as Family Gathering Place

My wife and I moved to Marco a couple of years ago and soon realized our condo was too small to accommodate our grown families for reunions. That led us to buying a smaller house on the island with a pool for the grandchildren to enjoy. Since then, we've met with each child and their family several times during the year, putting them up at the house. During the Christmas holidays, our son and his family visit from overseas and stay there as well. Then on Christmas Eve we all get together for a traditional celebration with all twelve of us. About eight remain to spend the night.

Everyone enjoys the time together, using the pool, gabbing, having fun, laughing, and being together. We make some noise as all families do whether they're permanent residents or visitors, but we're always aware of our neighbors, not wanting to disturb their spaces.

We also rent out the house as a vacation house for couples and families. We set a minimum period of four nights, and we require the primary guest to be at least 32. We have strict house rules which we enforce, and we deny requests to stay if the guest does not fit our preferred "family" profile.

We've not had a problem with rowdy house guests. We've not had any complaints from the neighbors, even though some of our permanent resident neighbors have had police calls made on themselves.

Now we'll have a referendum on the ballot in August asking voters to restrict our rights to peaceful assembly, restricting our ability to recoup some costs of home ownership, and if it passes, will restrict our ability for one year to advertise rental of our house for even long terms!

Please be aware of the entire content of this referendum.  It's a long one that was drafted by a group of citizens wanting to return this island to a day that hasn't existed for scores of years anywhere in Southwest Florida. Then vote, NO.