A recent check of an online rental agency listed 1,458 vacation rental properties in Islamorada. The Village Vacation Rental registration lists 257 properties. If you are an Islamorada resident and have endured some of the issues associated with vacation rentals in your neighborhood, you likely don't need convincing that this is a serious problem.

Short-term rentals (less than a month) have been controversial for years. Decades ago, vacation rentals in Islamorada were primarily a way for folks with vacation homes to help with costs of owning a second home.

Times have changed. Now short-term rentals are in huge demand with tourists. Investors are buying up building rights for single family homes to create “private mini-hotels” using Vacation Rental licenses to compete with our existing commercial hotels and motels. It is a very lucrative business with some large “homes” that are permitted as single-family renting for more than $2,000/night with occupancy as high as 10 tenants. 

• Is an occupancy of 10 adults the intended use of a “single family” building right?   
• Aren’t the infrastructure impacts significant as the size and occupancy of dwellings increase: more water, more wastewater, increased traffic on the highway?
• Don’t we need to worry about the impact on affordable housing, with many of the small homes and trailers once common here, being redeveloped as large fulltime vacation rentals?
• According to Village lobbyists, the Vacation Rental industry invests huge sums annually on their own lobbyists in Tallahassee, attempting to eliminate vacation rental restrictions triggered by municipal ordinances. They’d like to eliminate restrictions on the number of vacation rentals allowed and limitations as to where. The vacation rental industry opposes Home Rule, the concept that laws like this should be established and enforced locally, not in Tallahassee.
• After 15 years, many vacation rentals in Islamorada remain grandfathered in neighborhoods where they were deemed inappropriate via the ordinance as written in 2003.
• Enforcement of unlicensed rentals of less than 28 days duration has been very limited.
• Complaints about too many vehicles, occupancy limits, and noise continue.
• Isn’t increased law enforcement on land and water one of the answers?
• Taxpayers are footing a significant portion of the bill for the limited code enforcement that exists.