ANNA MARIA – Commissioners have established the city’s vacation rental registration fees for the year-long period encompassing portions of 2023 and 2024.
The new fee will be $84.17 for each occupant allowed in accordance with the city’s vacation rental ordinance, adopted in 2015, and also in accordance with approximately 100 Bert Harris claim settlements reached in 2016 and 2017 that allow higher total occupancies at specific vacation rental properties.
The registration fee is increasing by $9.70 per occupant from the $74.47 per occupant fee established last year. For existing vacation rentals, the increased fee takes effect as annual registration licenses are renewed throughout the year.
The annual occupancy-based registration fees are established each year by a resolution adopted by the city commission.
“We do this each year because under Florida law our fees need to be based on the actual cost of enforcing our ordinance,” City Attorney Becky Vose said when presenting resolution R23-786 to commissioners on Feb. 9.
Vose noted Mayor Dan Murphy and City Clerk/Treasurer LeAnne Addy created the proposed fee schedule. The annual registration fee for a one-bedroom short-term vacation rental that allows two guests per bedroom plus two additional guests will be $336.38. The annual fee for a six-occupant vacation rental will be $505.02. The annual fee for a 12-occupant vacation rental will be $1,010.04. The highest annual fee listed in the resolution is $2,440.93 for a vacation rental that allows 29 occupants.
Addy said the annual registration fees are calculated to cover the costs of enforcing the city’s vacation rental ordinance. Those costs include enforcement personnel and vehicles and the lobbying costs associated with the state Legislature’s annual attempts to preempt vacation rental regulation to the state rather than the city. The fees also cover vacation rental-related inspection costs, administrative costs and more.
Murphy also noted the annual fee is strictly related to the enforcement of the city’s vacation rental ordinance. Each year he estimates what the city’s total vacation rental enforcement costs will be and then divides that number by the number of registered vacation rental units in Anna Maria. The 2022-23 fiscal year budget adopted in September included $415,110 in projected vacation rental registration fee revenues.
Commission Chair Mark Short asked Murphy if the new fee matched the anticipated vacation rental expenses and revenues included in the 2022-23 fiscal year budget adopted in September.
Murphy said the fee is in line with the projections made for the current fiscal year budget. Addy said registration revenues might be slightly higher than projected due to the ongoing construction of new vacation rental homes.
