By Alyson Crean acrean@keynoter.com

Florida Supreme Court supports county on transient restrictions

In what is likely the final nail in the coffin for a handful of property owners, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monroe County's ban on unlicensed vacation rentals.

“This means the county's transient rental ordinance that bans transient rentals in residential neighborhoods has been upheld,” said attorney Ed Scales, who argued the case on the county's behalf.

The ruling stems from a class action suit brought by a handful of county residents headed by Elizabeth Neumont in 2003. Neumont and the others challenged the 1997 law, which prohibits rentals of less than 28 days in neighborhoods not zoned for tourist activities.

The group sued the county in federal court and lost, but appealed one aspect of the case: could the county legally change the content of a proposed ordinance between the first and second public hearings on that ordinance?

This is the question decided Thursday by the Supreme Court.

“This gives a clear answer,” Scales said. “Only a change that renders the title inaccurate or misleading would require the process to begin anew. So if the general purpose of an ordinance that was advertised stays the same, you don't have to start all over.”

According to the property owners who challenged the law, the Monroe County Commission, during the first of two readings of the ordinance in 1997, “discussed a different and previously unavailable draft” of the law. The same thing happened at the second reading, they charged.

The court wrote, “we hold that the changes to an ordinance during the enactment process are only substantial or material if they change the ordinance's general purpose.”

Scales says attorneys for cities and counties all over Florida have already contacted him regarding the decision. It's an issue, he says, that is constantly tested by local government bodies.

“You have to balance the importance of public input and the importance of public notice,” said Scales.