MARK SCHUMANN
Search “private homes vacation rentals” and you will find more than 270 listings for central Vero Beach. Given that short-term rentals, also known as transient occupancy dwellings, are prohibited in residential areas, clearly Vero Beach has a code enforcement problem.
Violator-in-chief of this particular city code is Councilwoman Tracy Carroll. She and her husband own a home located at 530 Camellia Lane that is currently advertised for rentals for as short as six days.
As recently as April 10th of this year, one guest who stayed in the Carroll beachside “hotel” wrote, “My family and I had a great time in Vero Beach. We loved this house. It was fairly close to the beach but just across the street from a great park. The house was very roomy and the kids had their own space including a couch and tv area upstairs. We recommend this house for your family.”
Another guest who stayed in the Carroll’s Camellia Lane home in February wrote, “John (Carroll) the owner is very pleasant and easy to work with. He is also close by if you need him. When we rented the home there was a $150.00 money back incentive upon arrival for a quick booking. This was a great bonus and John had the cash when we got there. This rental is well worth the money and you will certainly not be disappointed. We would rent this property again from John in a heartbeat.”
Last summer the same issue of the Carrolls renting homes for terms shorter than allowed by city code came up when they rented a home on Seagrape Drive for a week to a family of 15. The Carrolls no longer own the home on Seagrape Drive, but they continue to advertise and rent the Camellia Lane home under terms that are prohibited by city code.
Randy Fryar, who lives near the home the Carrolls owned on Seagrape Drive, wrote in a letter to Planning Director Tim McGarry, “The real slap in the face is that Councilwoman Tracy Carroll was sent a memo by Department Correspondence June 24, 2011. She defies the law and proceeds, not caring for the property values in our community.”
In the June 24, 2011 letter from McGarry to Carroll which Fryar cited, McGarry wrote, “The use of a residential building to provide temporary short-term lodging to the transient public in a manner similar to hotels, motels, and guest houses or lodges, clearly exhibits commercial characteristics thereby excluding such uses from the City’s residential districts.”
According to McGarry, his department, which is responsible for code enforcement, has just two officers, and is thus challenged to see that the city’s codes prohibiting short-term rental are enforced and obeyed, even by City Council members.
With violators such as the Carrolls facing fines of just $50, there is little disincentive for those inclince to ignore the law. Councilwoman Pilar Turner, recently wrote “Unfortunately, Vero Beach’s Ordinance is weak and does not provide sufficient penalties to encourage compliance.”
One issue here is the clear interest and responsibility the city has to protect the character of its residential neighborhoods. If Vero Beach is unable or unwilling to enforce its codes and zoning laws, the central beach may come to resemble less and less the quiet residential enclave it has been for decades, and may take on more and more the ethos of a party town.
A second issue here has to do, not with policy, but with a sitting City Councilmember persistently flaunting the rule of law.
Consider how uncomfortable it must be for McGarry and his code enforcement officers to have to confront a City Councilmember about their continued disregard for the law.
Residents of Vero Beach live under and are expected to abide by city ordinances that do now allow for the short-term rental of residential properties.
But, of course, ordinances can be changed, most of them by a simple majority of the five-person City Council. If the property owners of Vero Beach want to petition the City Council for a change in the ordinances governing residential rentals, that is their right.
In the mean time, it remains everyone’s right to expect that city ordinances will be enforced and respected, especially by members of the City Council.
Indian River Guardian 
Tracy Carroll is apparently a politican who lives by the code “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Voters expect their elected representatives to set a good example rather than violating the law.
Mr. McGarry’s office simply needs to respond to the online ad for this property and if the Carrolls respond, that in fact, it is availiable by the week. You’ve got your evidence and you bring it to the code enforcement board. We all know that short term rentals in the City are availiable, and not just on the beach. They are blatantly posted on the internet and are easy to trace. I suggest that these understaffed departments in the city solicit volunteers to weed out violators. Mr. McGarry should make the Camelia case a high prioity. Are income taxes being paid on this rental income? Are they taking depriciation
on these properties as rentals? Are they collecting the 7% sales tax
required for short term rentals? How are they getting insurance on these properties if they are vacant? Are they checking to verify that they are not renting to sexual predators? There are a lot of ways to end this practice. Or we can do what the county did and just allow it, to the detriment of neighbors.