COMMENTARY

LYNNE LARKIN

“I’m for clean water,” he said, as he poured his used motor oil into the lagoon.

“I know we can save our manatees,” he said, as he ran his motorboat 50 MPH in a no-wake zone.

Hypocrites unite on the Board of County Commissioners.  What they say and what they do are entirely different things.

When they say they want to promote local business growth, they don’t mean our licensed and regulated hotels. For some reason, these businesses that suffer slow months making it difficult to maintain quality vacation destinations all year ‘round are less important than flop houses being run in residential areas.  What they want is to create unregulated competition in the neighborhoods for the legitimate businesses left wanting on our beaches.  Welcome to the short-term rentals on the street where you live.

The current BCC tells us that sea turtle protection is paramount to our beaches, yet when the Florida Fish and Wildlife officers present evidence to the County Code Board that multiple light and noise violations are occurring along county beaches, the Code Board dismisses the complaints.  The Code Board is appointed by the Commission members.  They follow the lead of the County Commission.

So where are our leaders heading,?  You may well ask.  The curlicues of logic leave everyone guessing.  If you hear Bob Solari, Joe Flescher, Tim Zorc, Peter O’Bryan, or Wesley Davis standing up for property rights, you can ask about their stand against the fast trains being proposed.  The trains own that property.  Under the County Commission’s libertarian philosophy, All Aboard Florida can use their tracks as they wish.  If that activity is dangerous, disruptive, or even financially ruinous, in their view we bow to the owner’s decision.  But they say “no” on the All Aboard Florida  trains.

Conversely, when it comes to short-term rentals that have already proven to be dangerous, disruptive and financially burdensome to neighboring property values, the County Commission Boys say okay.  Private property, neighbors lose.  And as shown in many Code Board cases, even if they pass an ordinance to restrict short-term rentals via parking or noise or lighting issues, they don’t enforce those laws.

Which is it?  Which way do they walk today, then talk tomorrow?

Many homeowner and condo associations in our area have rules that are even more restrictive that those of the City of Vero Beach, where your government officials [except Pilar Turner] are trying to keep our neighborhoods free from commercial disturbances.  The vast majority of residents in the Vero Beach area don’t want to have Motel 6, 7-11, or any 8-is-enough bed and breakfast move in next door.  The razing of the former Ramada hotel on the beach is almost complete.  Many others have come and gone.

What needs to come are people who care about their constituents.  People who will actually enforce the laws on which we all rely for our quality of life, not cater to a small group of individuals who seek to profit by scoffing at our laws.  What needs to go is this entire board of county commissioners, hypocrites every one.