MARK SCHUMANN

The Vero Beach City Council decided 3-1 yesterday to appeal a recent ruling of the Code Enforcement Board to the circuit court.  Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll was required to abstain from voting because of a potential financial conflict of interest.

The CEB’s decision, if allowed to stand, would likely open the way to unlimited and virtually unregulated short-term vacation rentals.  At least that is what the Council was advised by members of the public, who flooded the Council with emails and who turned out in mass at yesterday evening’s meeting.

Mayor Craig Fletcher, Councilmen Jay Kramer and Richard Winger supported the motion to appeal to the circuit court.  Councilwoman Pilar Turner opposed it, saying she thought the next step should be to seek a legal opinion on the prospects of a successful appeal.  “If we ask another lawyer, we will just get another opinion,” Fletcher countered.

According to City Manager Jim O’Connor, he and Planning Director Tim McGarry will now hire an attorney to file an appeal before the 30-day deadline.

The issue was brought before the Council after the CEB ruled 3-2 in favor of Carroll and her husband, John, who have been renting a home they own in the central beach for periods of less than 30 days.  For decades, the City’s code has been interpreted to prohibit transient, vacation rentals.  After receiving a citation mid summer, the Carroll’s challenge the Planning Department’s interpretation of the Code.  The citation followed two warnings, one issued earlier in the summer another one last year.

“When you convert a home into a hotel, you disturb the tranquility of our residential neighborhoods,” said beachside resident David Hunter, who claimed to have had unpleasant experiences with vacationers renting short-term in his neighborhood.  “A vacation rental is simply a bed and breakfast without breakfast,” Hunter concluded.

Honey Minuse, chair of the Indian River Neighborhood Association’s executive committee and a member of the Planning and Zoning Board said, “I can’t begin to tell you the shock that is going through this community.”

She urged the Council to appeal what she described as the CEB’s “rogue” decision in hopes of “providing for the stability of our neighborhoods.”

A number of other citizens, including Randy Fryer and Randy Old, shared what they said had been bad experiences with short-term rentals near them.

Former City Councilman Ken Daige said the city’s long-standing prohibition against short-term rentals was helpful several years ago in addressing crime problems in one neighborhood.  “We need your help in this matter,” Daige told the Council.

Carroll’s husband, John, argued the code is “ambiguous” and thus unenforceable.

Carroll’s attorney, Thomas Tierney, having successfully argued his client’s case before the CEB, attempted to dissuade the Council from appealing that decision.  Tierney said some 80 percent of cases appealing the rulings of governing bodies are upheld by the courts.

Hunter countered that in this case, the governing body is the Council, not the CEB, and that the courts would be far more inclined to give weight to the decision of an elected council over an appointed board.

Though she was required to abstain from voting, Vice Mayor Carroll participated in the debate.  She said that with some 28 years experience on the CEB, the three members who voted in favor of her and her husband should be respected and their decision accepted.

In the end, Fletcher, Kramer and Winger all stressed the need to seek a definitive decision from the circuit court.

Another contributor to the debate was former City Councilman and current candidate for the Council, Brian Heady.  Heady opened his remarks by saying the core of the problem was Carroll.  After warning Heady several times to avoid personal attacks, Fletcher finally turning off the lectern microphone while Heady was speaking.  Fletcher then asked a Vero Beach Police Officer to escort the former City Councilman from the lectern.