Pensacola Beach Weighs a Vacation-Rental Crackdown: Annual Registration, 24-Hour Contacts - and a Possible Vote Wednesday
The Santa Rosa Island Authority's draft would make beach rental owners register every year and prove their licenses and tax registrations are in order. The board discusses it - and could vote - at 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 4, on Via de Luna.
Pensacola Beach's vacation rentals may be about to get a rulebook with teeth. A proposed crackdown on problem short-term rentals is taking shape at the Santa Rosa Island Authority, with new rules that would require property owners to register annually, provide around-the-clock emergency contacts, and face additional scrutiny for properties that draw complaints, the Pensacola News Journal reported. The SRIA board is scheduled to discuss the draft at its meeting on Wednesday, November 4 at 5 p.m. at the authority's office at 1 Via de Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach - and board members could vote on the regulations at that meeting if they are satisfied with the draft.
The registration at the heart of the proposal is a paperwork test with a purpose: owners renting homes on SRIA-administered residential leaseholds would have to show proof of a state vacation rental license, an Escambia County business tax receipt, and registration for tourist development tax payments. Board member Marc Marrocco, who helped develop the regulations with legal counsel, said the primary goal is to make property owners demonstrate they are complying with rules and responsibilities that already exist. The complaints behind the draft are the familiar beach list - noise, parking, overcrowding and parties - as more beach homes have converted to vacation rentals.
State law fences in what the authority can do: Florida generally prohibits local governments from banning vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often guests stay. The proposal is therefore structured as an enforceable SRIA policy rather than a county ordinance, working through the authority's leasehold and legal enforcement powers and its ability to refer violations to Escambia County and other agencies - an approach the draft notes is modeled on rules in Anna Maria, Gulf Breeze and Panama City Beach. Wednesday's meeting is where beach leaseholders and rental owners get their say before any vote.
