MARK SCHUMANN

Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox yesterday denied Charles Fritz’s request for a temporary injunction prohibiting the City of Vero Beach from enforcing its long-standing ban on short-term rentals.

Fritz ownes several investment homes which he continues to rent for less than 30 days. In April, Fitz was fined $500 for leasing his home at 766 Fiddlewood Road as “a guest house and transient quarters.”

City officials contend such commercial use of residential properties has been illegal in Vero Beach since the early 1970s. Fritz’s lawyers argue that when the city council amended its land regulation code in January to clarify what is considered a short-term rental, or a transient occupancy, it did so in violation of a Florida law passed in 2011 prohibiting further regulation of vacation rentals.

That now-controversial legislation was supported by State Rep. Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach.

Unlike the City of Vero Beach, which has continued to enforce its ban on vacation rentals, the Indian River County Commission abandoned its prohibition against transient occupancies. With vacation rentals a growing concern among some county residents, the County Commission is now trying to limit them through parking regulations. Unlike the City of Vero Beach, the County no longer has a ban on short term rentals predating the 2011 Legislature’s action.

Cox’s order denying a temporary injunction prohibiting Vero Beach from enforcing its ban on short term rental was not a final ruling in the Fritz’s case, the merits of which must still be heard in court.