ANNA MARIA – Property owner Mukesh Patel feels that city officials are overreaching in their efforts to declare his vacation rental home at 313 Magnolia Ave. a public nuisance because of repeat noise ordinance violations.
Patel is one of four people bearing the same last name who are listed as authorized persons for the Orlando-based Mangoes on Magnolia LLC that owns the vacation rental home where guests have received five noise ordinance violation citations in nine months, between June 2021 and March of this year.
During a code enforcement hearing on May 18, Special Magistrate Jerry Buhr ruled in favor of the city and declared the vacation rental home at 313 Magnolia to be a public nuisance.
On May 26, the Anna Maria City Commission authorized City Attorney Becky Vose to file a lawsuit against the Patel’s LLC seeking injunctive relief, which includes the potential suspension of the LLC’s city-issued vacation rental license for up to one year. If successful in court, the city’s lawsuit could result in the LLC temporarily losing its ability to use the residential property as a short-term vacation rental. The vacation rental is managed by Vacasa.
“Special magistrates in Florida don’t have jurisdiction to do anything but declare them a public nuisance,” Vose said during the May 26 meeting. “They don’t have the right to give injunctive relief. Our code does allow us to file suit in circuit court to ask the court to declare the public nuisance and give us injunctive relief to stop it going forward.”
“The injunctive relief that I recommend we go after in this particular case is a suspension of the owner’s right to use that property as a vacation rental for one year,” Mayor Dan Murphy said. “I feel very strongly that a one-year suspension should get the message across that this type of behavior in our city is not allowed.”
On May 29, Vose sent Patel an email that said, “Last Thursday evening, the Anna Maria City Commission authorized me to file suit in Circuit Court in Manatee County against your LLC as a public nuisance and request injunctive relief. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Patel response
On May 31, Patel responded to Vose’s email and copied Murphy and Code Enforcement Manager Sandy Olson in his response.
“I feel like this is an incredible overreach, especially as I have tried so hard to work with both the neighbor, as well as the city, to put forward mitigation efforts to prevent future issues,” Patel stated in his email.
Patel purchased the home in September 2013 and transferred its ownership to the Mangoes on Magnolia LLC that November.
“As you all know, the Island has become a vacation favorite for many and having five violations within a nine-year rental period with thousands and thousands of bookings doesn’t seem to merit this,” Patel wrote.
“I have worked, and will continue to work, collaboratively with the city on making Anna Maria a great place to live, work and vacation. However, I do feel very strongly that I’m being targeted for some reason. I will begin a search for an attorney who can represent me and will be back in touch once I retain one. It’s a real shame that this has gotten to this point, despite my good faith efforts to work diligently with the city,” Patel wrote.
As of June 3, the city had not yet filed its civil lawsuit. Vose recently said the lawsuit would be filed after the city receives the court reporter’s verbatim transcript of the May 18 code enforcement hearing.
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