HomeMy WebLinkAbout20210224 1247 Proposed Vacation Rental Ordinance 10-2021
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Re: Proposed Vacation Rental Ordinance 10-2021
February 24, 2021
Dear Mayor Hoog, City Manager Morley, and Members of the Cape Canaveral City Council:
I have been a Brevard County resident since 1973, at six years old, I clearly remember living on Merritt Island while attending Lewis Carroll Elementary School and seeing our County
grow through the years. While growing up I moved about Brevard living in Cocoa, Melbourne, Titusville, and PSJ putting myself through BCC and UCF to eventually work at Kennedy Space
Center (KSC) experiencing the most exciting and rewarding part of my career... while choosing Cape Canaveral to buy a quaint home in 1988, that I love and return to often... waiting
for the day when I can return and retire.
Sadly, once the Shuttle was retired in 2011 and the resulting Constellation Program was cancelled, the Space Program came to a sunset in Brevard... causing extreme devastation to the
entire Space Coast. A multitude of businesses closed, homes were trashed, destroyed, and abandoned, pets were locked or chained up and abandoned as lay-offs caused an unnatural disaster.
A multitude of my co-workers, friends, neighbors, and other residents were forced to leave Brevard, many who I keep in touch with on social media and through LinkedIn. As the entire
county suffered loss and those trying to make a viable living were put through the wringer as we saw property values and neighborhoods plummet... many of us who love Brevard had to
leave for work to support ourselves and our families.
I was forced to move or lose my job, then chose to consciously live frugally to keep my home in Cape Canaveral, instead of destroying or abandoning it. Know it has been entirely upgraded
and I remain in close contact with my neighbors we have all improved our area... I still care for and visit with my neighbors, who are close friends, as often as possible until I can
return home where there’s a unique feel in Cape Canaveral. It is uniquely The Space Between a sustainable coastal community, if guided with integrity and worked together with the community
in a manner that allows for teamwork, diversity, and inclusion. Our coastal community responsibly embraces the ocean and river as key amenities, we appreciate how fortunate we are,
as good caretakers of our natural environment treating it and each other with Grace and dignity. We support a vision that promotes local tourism, appreciates culture and education,
while offering clean recreation and a healthy resiliency for commerce. Which is why, when the opportunity came up through the credible organization of Airbnb to share my sweet home
and much loved City of Cape Canaveral it was a blessing. Airbnb, vets guests and as a responsible homeowner and host I provide House Rules electronically via their site and have a booklet
in my home which includes city laws. Along with posting House Rules we offer tourism guidebooks promoting many local small businesses and willingly share everything that’s our locale
has to offer. My home has always been very well maintained, as many of my neighbors, ensuring a high rating with respectful and responsible guests whose tourism spending and local patronage
have contributed to many local businesses. I provide audio and video security outside of my home and we follow special COVID-19 precautions and cleanliness protocols. Many vacation
rentals are like mine in that they provide better security, cleanliness, and attract higher levels of guests than many of the larger hotels and motels... please do an internet search
on hotel cleanliness and perform diligent research on hotels and their non-existent screening or vetting of guests, with no restrictions or oversight on how they behave. Whereas responsible
vacation homes and hosts provide a valuable resource for Cape Canaveral, as I took in a family escaping from a local horrid hotel experience... Instead of leaving Cape Canaveral/Cocoa
Beach with a sour tale to tell, this forgiving family, as many other kind guests have been able to share lovely stories with many friends and families... of Cape Canaveral, the Space
Between and my lovely relaxing beachside home, shinning a glowing light upon us and the Space Coast.
As a responsible homeowner and vacation home host, we pay taxes and provide a valuable resource and service to the City of Cape Canaveral. A place where we continue to envision and enjoy
a unique atmosphere, a place where we proudly share our beautiful and architecturally rich city... we have even had guests love our home and city enough to move to Cape Canaveral, enriching
our community. Many vacation hosts and guests share beautiful pictures and stories on social media through Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram showcasing our beaches, parks, river, community
leisure center, while honoring our commitment to the environment and preserving our coastline. We are unpaid community supporters and engaging tourism hosts that bring a valuable service
to our city. We attract guests that are seeking respite from other more cold, harried industrialized, hotels... providing premier options for those wanting to enjoy a relaxing beachside
vacation where they feel welcome by a community that cares about its city, environment, culture, and residents. It is us homeowners who are willing to share our homes and city as willing
advocates for improving our community and environment... we envision an engaged and compassionate community, one that is caring for our neighbors, supportive of our local businesses,
enhancing economic viability while serving everyone, without discrimination, and embracing visitors with culture, diversity, and inclusion.
Before the city imposes unreasonable ordinance changes, please do diligent research into the quality of living where responsible vacation homeowners share their homes and communities
to see increasing value in communities where common interests are shared. Presently, many of us are afraid that big business and lobbyists are more concerned with their own bottom line
than our lovely community. Many vacationers are seasonal and returning guests who appreciate staying in a beautiful, clean, house full of amenities and the comforts of home. They are
considerate, respectful, courteous, and generous in sharing their wonderful experiences while visiting our precious community, touting our city's hometown feel. Some guests are workers
who provide valued services in the community, when needed, while others are relocating to Brevard and looking for a community where they can purchase a home and call it their own. They
are not criminals, vagrants, druggies, partying through the night, creating a raucous or breaking laws. They are held accountable for their actions and can be asked to leave in an instant,
if necessary... something long term apartment/condo owners, or hotels may be unwilling or unable to do.
Many friends, neighbors, and vacation homeowners have been dismayed to hear about the City’s proposal to engage in a campaign of regulatory war on Cape Canaveral vacation rentals during
a time when we are providing safer and more desirable family vacation rental availability during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is becoming evident this issue is being presented in a biased
and negative light, while our duly elected officials and governing body (not an oligarchy) seems to be dissuading and ignoring any/all positive feedback, reflecting poorly on our preciously
diverse and inclusive community.
As a UCF graduate with honors, BA in Public Administration and minor in Criminal Justice who has worked with the government for 34 plus years and garnered the respect of many, I beseech
you to search deeply into why you would enact such ordinances attacking those who provide vacation rentals. Especially, when we are more in-line with the City of Cape Canaveral's Vision
of a welcoming community... unless, there are other reasons to paint such a bleak picture of vacation rentals? Experience in working with federal, state, and local government has provided
me with insight into the frailties of loyalty and how it may be swayed by those with certain interests... it would be very disturbing to discover the City isn't fairly listening to
all its constituents or considering in an open and fair way the item before them. To the hard core of this issue no evidentiary proof has been presented of any offenses by vacationing
rental guests. Any allegations have no real proven basis when real facts should be reviewed in an open forum while fairly listening to everyone without discrimination and pre-conceived
notions, where bias may be noted.
Many homeowners who are sharing our homes as vacation rentals are educated and savvy enough to see negative bias as the City presents the total number of non-homesteaded properties,
including those owned by snowbirds, for a total of 1,609 properties. Then use that total to inflate the actual number of short-term vacation rentals in the city by more than five-fold.
This is not accurate and is a seemingly duplicitous way to present these figures. It's disappointing to see our elected representatives resorting to unsavory and radical number inflation
to be used as scare tactics.
This vacation rental proposal is clearly an example of government overreach and designed to restrict COVID-19 safe family vacation rental options when people are actively seeking private
accommodations to better protect themselves and their families. These measures are pushed by hotel lobbyist trying to boost their own bottom line by stomping on those of us who are
dedicated to an inclusive community vision, where innovation and integrity are used to proactively improve neighbor relations. It appears the City of Cape Canaveral is siding with and
looking out for big business by allowing and fostering the construct of more and more hotels. Where it seems people may care less about the community and any vision it may have than
cramming as many people as they can into each hotel, where they're not held accountable for regulating their guests. Please do not allow poor leadership or poor business decisions to
drive responsibly diverse guests to find accommodations outside of Cape Canaveral, as many do not want to stay in hotels.
In reality, there are very few private vacation rental homes in Cape Canaveral compared to surrounding cities. The Mayor and City Council are overstating a problem that is limited to
a tiny handful of properties.
A more serious consideration, is the real occurrence of many problems at the City’s other longer-term rental units. What do call logs show, including severity of incidents, for the number
of calls to the Sheriff’s office regarding vacation rentals relative to the number of calls received from other similar housing units in Cape Canaveral? I have personally seen multiple
officers and vehicles at apartment complexes near the Cape View Elementary School, where some structures have been seen as unappealing and maintenance leave a lot to be desired. The
guests we chose to share our home with meet reasonable standards inside privacy laws and are duly more than required at hotels... they are appreciative of our home and respectfully
treat it with great consideration, as better than their own. They appreciate our security cameras and have enjoyed staying in a home versus cold or seedy hotels.
The City would be overreaching into people's private homes and pockets to enact unreasonable requirements and ordinances attacking those innovatively providing for their families. Thus,
driving a wedge into the community, pitting neighbor against neighbor while resulting in the ruin of Cape Canaveral's vision of community. There is no honorable or good value to denying
innovative home owners their right to be engaged and passionate about envisioning an easily walkable and biking community. One that retains and enhances its welcoming residential feel,
celebrating our unique and small business friendly community that is open to everyone... Not just big business.
This appears to be an attempt by the City to use its power to protect hotels, gain extra permit fees, and to force small businesses out of business, especially when the owner doesn’t
live in Brevard County and therefore can’t personally be on-call and on-site 24 hours a day. The only people who will be able to stay in business are larger vacation rental companies,
another way to help big business at the expense of small businesses including people who are renting their homes to provide retirement income. Instead of utilizing vision to build a
city of neighbors embracing culture, diversity, and inclusion the City seems to be placing the interests of big business first, sadly, at the insurmountable cost and destruction of
your own people. It is disappointing to see our City leadership attacking small business owners by working to limit vacation rental options and feasibility, you will drive down property
values, prevent further upgrades of properties in struggling neighborhoods, and cut revenue to local small businesses. This would be a blow to our small businesses, both vacation rentals
and others that depend on vacationers for revenue at a time when we should be helping businesses rather than hurting them. This is a move that will benefit hotels and drive many families
away from Cape Canaveral as a vacation rental option. It will make it more difficult for people to provide COVID-19 safe family vacation rental options, a move that is very out of touch
with the pandemic. During this unprecedented and challenging time, is this really the City’s most important priority regarding our economic climate and the future of our community?
Problems described in the memorandum are already addressed under existing city statutes and should be enforce therein. Please take any measures under serious consideration before making
egregious decisions that will cause severely negative impacts to your neighbors, small business innovators, and our community vision. Also, please be reminded of our community's existence
on the space program and how reliant we are to tourism... and how providing more COVID-19 safe family options could be critical in drawing people to our Space Between... and how hotels
cheapen our skyline, block beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and restrict views of exciting and tourism drawing launches to space... a myriad of hotels are clearly not part of our city’s
vision.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Paula Nosca Rosenberg
A loving home owner who wants to return to our unique Space Between.
Sent from my iPhone
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