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VACATION RENTAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Learn to use the GIS System If you have a problem with a Vacation Rental, report it to the Village. The public can help with enforcement by being the eyes and ears. The Village has added data from the Vacation Rental license database to the municipal GIS system. What is that and how can you use it? A geographic information system (GIS) is a system that creates, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of data to connects data to a map. You can access the GIS system on the Village website. |
Go to the Village website at www.islamorada.fl.us. Go to Departments on the horizontal drop down menu and go down to Planning | Move your cursor to the right over GIS Maps and click | The map of Islamorada will appear. At the top left of the screen, click on the icon that looks like a stack of papers. And then click to select Streets, Vacation Rentals and parcels. | Clicking on the cursor and hold it down to move the map to the location you are looking for. Use the + at the far top left to magnify the map, |
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Once you have found the approximate location zoom in close, if the property has a vacation rental license there will be a yellow "VR" on the property. Click on the property and the owner information will be displayed. |
Vacation Rental Concerns - What can we do?
1. Determine who is on our side
- Are members of council aboard to fight for residents? Are lobbyists directed to fight for residents... or individuals?
- Where are our lobbyists? How are we tasking them to help?
- Where is our Florida Representative and Senator? What are they doing to help?
3. Assure our funding for lobbyists is being used effectively. Are any of our lobbyists also working for the Vacation Rental industry? Are we getting our priorities right and our money’s worth?
2. Modify the TDR ordinance so that single family homes using TDRs are not eligible for Vacation Rental Licenses and TDRs can only be transferred to vacant lots. This will serve to increase the number of TDRs available for vacant lots that might otherwise result in a “takings” lawsuit. It will eliminate the mini-resorts being created using residential TDRs for what is usually considered a commercial use.
3. Are hotels and motels able to deal with the competition from today’s variety of vacation rentals? Will they join an effort to better regulate Vacation Rentals?
4. Make certain there are no loopholes that allow building rights from mobile home parks to be transferred as market rate TDRs and eventually Vacation Rentals in conflict with our Comprehensive Plan.
5. Increase the fee for a vacation rental license so that it covers the cost of vacation rental enforcement and results in excess funds to be used for affordable housing projects, as intended in the vacation rental ordinance.
See Vacation Rental Fee recommendations
6. Do not extend the 2007 assessed valuation used since 2008 for determining eligibility for a vacation rental license which has allowed some of the least expensive dwellings to be licensed, potentially impacting affordable housing.
7. Assure that any dwelling that is assessed under 600% of the most recent Monroe County Median Income does not get a Vacation Rental license, as has been occurring for several years
8. Improve upon enforcement. Cite property owners when:
- They advertise greater occupancy than allowed by our code
- They do not include the state and village license numbers on advertising,
- They do not have the required sign prominently displayed indicating the annual permit and permit number.
9. Review and stiffen the penalties for violations of the Vacation Rental regulations.
10. Research whether violations can be treated the same as traffic violations – citations issued and fines due, no grace period.
Do you have an idea that you would like to submit to help with this issue? Please email us at info@Islamorada.org
