City sued over rentals

BY TIMOTHY O'HARA

Citizen Staff

KEY WEST — An environmental group has filed a lawsuit against the city, saying its proposal to allow more transient rentals in Old Town violates its comprehensive land-use plan.

The lawsuit Last Stand filed Friday objects to a proposal the Key West City Commission, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, approved in January, but is pending state approval.

If the state Department of Community Affairs approves the plan, developer Pritam Singh could transfer short-term rental permits from the former Hampton Inn to various locations throughout the historic district. The upscale Parrot Key condominiums, which Singh is building on the site of the former Hampton Inn, will have fewer rooms than the hotel, so he wants to transfer the building rights elsewhere.

Some would be in the residential neighborhoods along Simonton and Petronia streets. A dozen would go to create vacation rentals in a former warehouse at the corner of Simonton and Greene streets, according to his planner.

The city's comprehensive plan says transient rental units cannot exceed 25 percent of the city's total equivalent single-family units. A 2005 Planning Department report says that, at the time of the report, 32 percent of dwellings were transient rentals. The new rule would allow more transient rentals, said attorney Bob Goldman, who represents Last Stand.

"The overall purpose of the comprehensive plan is to encourage permanent housing and discouraging transient rentals," Goldman said. "The actions of the Board of Adjustment has taken runs contrary to the comprehensive plan in favor of the well-invested few."

Singh appealed to the Board of Adjustment after City Planner Gail Kenson denied his proposal.

"The question goes to the issue of the reduction of permanent housing structures that are available to the residents of Key West," Kenson wrote to commissioners. "These properties may be used as investments or as second homes. However, these homes are available through long-term leases, upon sale of the property, or change in status from a second home to the owner's permanent [residence]."

Commissioner Bill Verge was the lone dissenter of the proposal.

Converting second homes, which generally are occupied by quieter part-time owners, to vacation rentals for tourists places a burden on neighbors and depletes the stock of permanent housing, said Verge, who also voted against a plan last year that allows short-term rentals in Truman Annex.

The city and county have struggled for years to balance property rights with the desire to maintain peaceful neighborhoods. The city passed a transient rental rule in the late 1990s that made rentals of fewer than 30 days illegal without a city-issued license. The Truman Annex neighborhood, also developed by Singh, worked out a separate deal with the city after property owners sued for the right to rent their condos and houses.

tohara@keysnews.com