MARK SCHUMANN
In a 3-2 vote today, the City of Vero Beach Code Enforcement Board sided with Councilwoman Tracy Carroll and her husband, John, in their appeal of a citation they received in July for violating what had been a long-standing prohibition against transient occupancy in residential areas.
Planning Director, Tim McGarry, told the Board the City’s code did not allow for the renting of “transient guest house quarters” in residential areas. McGarry, acknowledged, though. that the code also did not specifically prohibit rentals of less than 30 days. However, he said, short term rentals are also not listed as an allowed use in areas zoned residential. “Unless it is a listed use, it is excluded,” McGarry said, basing his interpretation on what he called the exclusion principal of statutory construction.
The Board’s 3-2 decision today may open the way for unlimited transient occupancy rentals in city neighborhoods.
The city has 30 days to appeal the Board’s decision to Circuit Court, the same recourse the Carroll’s would have had if today’s decision had gone for the city. Whether or not to appeal today’s 3-2 vote of the Board is a decision to be made by the City Council.
The three board members who supported the Carrolls’ appeal, Chairman Kirk Noonan, Vice Chairman Dan Hagett, and James Richardson have all served on the Board since 2004, including the years when John Carroll was also on the Board. None of the three live on the barrier island, where short term rentals are likely to be more popular with tourists, and more of a concern to permanent residents.
Harry Howle and Suzanne Shell, who were appointed to the board in 2012, supported the City’s position.
“I was surprised by the Board’s decision,” McGarry said, adding, “I think we would have a good chance of winning on appeal.”
Indian River Guardian 
Well, are they going to get things squared away with the State of Florida–on sales tax? When my husband, a member of the Art Club, sent his quarterly sales tax form in late (there were NO sales on it), he was still charged $50.00 fee for being late. I hope the Carrolls are required to “come clean” on the State issue. And pay their back utility bills.
You see folks, the Carroll’s are above the law. That’s what you get when the elected officials control all the the appointed boards members because of personal appointments to these boards.
As I recall, one of the first things the Troika did was fire all of the boards long time volunteers and replace these boards with persons who will vote the way the elected officials want them to vote on matters that they oversee.
UNBELIEVABLE! no surprise with the vote 3-2 there. John himself said that he used to serve with them on the board. Tracyl thinks she is above the law….She is a disgrace to this community! Thank you, Mr. Howle and Ms. Shell for standing up to the issue and preserving the city.
The city council meeting that decides whether to appeal will be very interesting. I assume it will be at the next meeting where Mr. Fletcher
will be absent and Mrs. Carroll will be running the meeting. I assume she will have to recuse herself from voting. How could the city council not want to appeal this decision by a clearly biased code enforcement commission. There are 2 positions on the code enforcement board and one alternate position open. Where did those three people go?
The three who voted for the Carrolls have been on the board since 2004, so they were not appointed by Mrs. Carroll. This is disturbing.
But, so be it. Did anybody hear the collective sigh of relief from the other 300 homeowners who are doing the exact same thing. Now watch this same code enforcement board crucify Rene Snyder for her boarding house.
Bea, it doesn’t surprise me at all that it went this way. the city has the Carrolls, and the county has the man Jim Baird.
The three who voted to let the Carrolls “slide” should be ashamed of themselves. Their actions will destroy Vero if their decision in allowed to stand. The three are poor board members who might have trouble looking in the mirror tomorrow. You have seen the old boy network at its worst. A new council in November might be able to clean up the mess and the stench left by the three who voted to allow the Carrolls to beat the system.
Who does the city attorney represent in an appeal….the board, or staff, or the Mayor of Vice? Just asking.
Interesting that Mr. Carroll’s career has been circumventing existing zoning codes to allow Wal Mart to move into towns and run local buisnesses out. He seemed proud of that. Who could argue that Wal-Marts have helped any community. These three commision members were in his pocket before the meeting even began, clearly. He claims to have been collecting bed tax all along, Can this be verified. How would you even pay it without the liscense in place. I own a rental property in the county and I truly beleive that the rescinding of the 30 day rules increased my value, but maybe not my homesteaded neighbors. Mr. McGarry should have sought out some of the other violators and cited them all. The fact that he ignored all the other violators was his downfall in this case. Code enforcement should not be complaint driven. There are many other ways of flushing out violators .
There is a procedure to change/clarify rules, if they’re ambiguous.
Name calling, insults and personal attacks on good people is unacceptable. I consider Vero a cultured town, we do have our share of
nasty people though.
It does not improve the stature of Vero Beach. You know who you are,
lift yourselves out of the garbage heap.
Your stock photo of Mrs. Carroll makes me think that she possibly has a mini-me next to her that was cropped.