City Commission also agrees to raise fees related to program and add two more staff members to help handle work
In a unanimous vote on the first reading of the ordinance, the Sarasota City Commission last week approved the expansion of the city’s vacation rental program to the Downtown Neighborhood (DTN) zoning district.
The board members also unanimously directed staff to come back to them with a draft budget amendment to pay for two new employees to help handle the additional workload resulting from the expansion, and they agreed unanimously on a separate ordinance — again, on first reading — that includes staff-proposed increases in fees related to the rentals.
The goal is to try to ensure that the fees cover the program’s expenses, staff and the commissioners said.
Among the proposed changes, the registration fee would climb from $500 to $700, while annual renewals would rise from $350 to $600.
Additionally, the proposal calls for a $200 charge in situations when no one shows up at a dwelling to allow an inspector inside, when access is denied to an inspector and when an an inspection is cancelled.
Staff projected a cost-recovery level of 97.4% if the new fee schedule wins final approval. With two new positions, a slide showed, the program expense has been put at $555,861.10. The projected fee revenue would be $541,400, the slide also noted.
Hannah Chabica, supervisor of the vacation rentals program, told the commissioners that the estimates do not include the effects of the potential expansion of the program to the DTN zoning district.
Right now, Chabica pointed out, the cost recovery from the fees is 80% to 82%.
In response to a question that Commissioner Liz Alpert posed during the Oct. 19 hearing, Chabica explained that the higher fees were recommended in accord with the level of work that takes place, including the handling of renewals. Even though less paperwork is involved with the latter, Chabica added, “It does not mean that it’s less work for my staff.” For examples, she continued, “We come across changes of management companies, owners, operators, etc. And that sometimes has to kickstart the entire application process from ‘Square one.’ ”
When Alpert then asked whether Chabica had conducted engagement with the vacation rental operators to seek their comments on “what they think would be helpful” in terms of streamlining the steps they have to follow and staff has to follow, Chabica responded, “There hasn’t been specific outreach, no.” However, she added, the improvements that staff is proposing to the program result from the comments she and her staff have received over the past five years of administering the program.
The overall fee increases, Chabica noted, would come down to an extra 75 cents for the nightly rental rate, if a home or unit is rented for 48 weeks a year.
Both Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich and Alpert talked about their desire to see City Manager Karie Friling review the personnel needs for the program, along with potential cost savings.
Alpert focused on a letter that the board members had received from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee (RASM), which was dated Oct. 15. Max Brandow, vice president of advocacy and member programs for RASM, was one of three members of the public to address the commissioners during the hearing, stressing the organization’s opposition to the proposed higher fees.
The letter said, in part, “We believe the City has an opportunity to develop a Vacation Rental Compliance Program that is both effective and a model of efficient municipal administration.”
Then, it noted, “To help accomplish that goal, RASM respectfully was requesting that the commissioners direct staff to do the following:
Yet, Mayor Debbie Trice told her colleagues that, with City Manager Friling and Deputy City Manager Jennifer Jorgensen both away to attend a conference hosted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) conference, Trice had emailed Friling a copy of the letter, pointing out her belief “that this level of management review is the responsibility of the City Manager.” Trice added in her email, “I am confident that you would not have added this item to [that meeting’s agenda] if it weren’t ready for a vote.”
Nevertheless, Trice continued in the email, “I’d appreciate your confirmation that you are satisfied, from an operational standpoint, with the proposed ordinances as written.”
Trice read Friling’s Oct. 16 reply: “I have met and reviewed everything with staff prior to this [issue] being added to the agenda. I am confident that what is being proposed is consistent with the direction the commission gave staff to bring back to the board.”
Moreover, Friling wrote, “With the expansion of the program, there is a need for two additional positions to be funded out of the program revenue, which is needed to successfully implement the new expansion. I can’t support expansion of the program and then not have the resources to successfully implement the [commission’s] wishes.”
Commissioner Alpert then told her colleagues, “I agree with her.” Yet, Alpert pointed out, “That still doesn’t preclude [city staff from] doing an analysis of all of these things” over the next months, to determine the actual cost of staff time in handling the program.
Afterward, staff could come back to the commissioners with that information, Trice said, so they could review it.
Following that part of the discussion, the commissioners unanimously approved the motion, which Ohlrich made, calling for the budget amendment.
Chabica also told the board members that she is working on a five-year plan for the program. During her report to them in October 2027, she said, she will provide details on the revenue the city has received, city expenditures, staff performance, service levels and efforts to gain compliance when operators have not adhered to the program requirements.
In response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry, Luke Mocherman, a city communications specialist, reported this week that no date had been set for the second readings of the ordinances.
A trial period for advertising changes, but no modifications for information provided to guests in homes
Additionally, the commissioners approved a year-long trial period related to the advertising of the vacation rentals that Chabica had suggested. She will report the findings to them in October 2027, as well.
Chabica had explained that the city allows for no more than 12 adults in each vacation rental dwelling, but children under the age of 6 can be included in the group.
However, she continued, staff is aware of the fact that the advertising protocols on websites such as that of Airbnb do not have a means of distinguishing between the limit for adults and the flexibility for the number of children.
“We worked with the city attorney on language that would allow a higher advertised guest count, provided the listing also states [the] permitted maximum and clearly explains that anyone above that limit must be under [age] 6,” Chabica said. “The main operational concern,” she noted, “is verification.”
She showed them examples of the differences between descriptions of properties and the guest selections available through an online booking platform.
One other motion — regarding a requirement to direct vacation rental homeowners to provide information for their guests in regard to details about the program on the city website — including how to use a map that shows the locations of all the rentals and their related ownership details — failed on a 2-3 vote. The board majority concurred that it would burden the owners in having to ensure that information was added to all of the other materials the city regulations require them to provide their renters.
Only Commissioners Jen Ahearn-Koch and Kyle Battie supported that idea.
Expansion details and importance of inspections
During her presentation at the outset of the hearing, Chabica explained that one of the most valuable aspects of the vacation rentals registration program is the requirement for the owners of the dwellings to provide a contact who can be reached at all times if problems arise.
The expansion of the program to the Downtown Neighborhood (DTN) zoning district, she said, would allow residents of the affected neighborhoods to have the same “accountability requirements already used in the existing program.”
The DTN, Chabica continued, is primarily a residential district, “although its permitted uses are broader” than those for districts where single-family and multi-family dwelling are allowed. It includes hotels, for example, she noted.
The expanded program, she added, would apply “to qualifying rentals in single-, two-, three- and four-family dwellings within the DTN. “Approximately 50 units may require registration,” Chabica said, indicating that that figure was based on a staff analysis. “That remains an estimate,” she pointed out, because an advertised listing must be checked against the property’s zoning, building type, property use and any applicable exemptions before we can determine eligibility.”
She also noted, “Qualifying rentals lawfully in existence by the ordinance effective date may receive a temporary limit of up to 16 persons through Dec. 31, 2028, subject to the ordinance conditions.” Then, on Jan. 1, 2029, the “standard … occupancy limits would apply.”
The proposed application window would begin on Jan. 1, 2027, Chabica said; it would end on April 1, 2027. Staff then would complete its review of the applications submitted to the city, undertake the necessary inspections and issue program certificates by July 1, 2027.
Owners of qualifying properties in the DTN zoning district would not need to apply for renewals until the period between July 1 and Oct. 1, 2028, she added. Thus, she explained, the owners would not be faced almost immediately with a renewal cycle “right after joining the program.”
Then Chabica told the commissioners that staff anticipated $30,000 in new, estimated revenue, if the program were expanded. That figure was based on the existing $500 registration fee, she noted.
“Staff would track the DTN workload, cost and revenue separately through Fiscal Year [2027],” she continued, to enable the commissioners to “evaluate the actual impact.”
The second proposed ordinance before them that day, she explained, responded to direction they gave staff in early March. Staff was to consider ways to improve the registration process, enforcement of the program and revocation options, along with the fees being charged.
As of Oct. 2, Chabica pointed out, the city had approximately 660 registered vacation rentals and about 430 applications were in various stages of processing. Staff has inspections scheduled through December, she added. “So we’re working with owners to renew for [2027].”
(In an Oct. 23 email to the commissioners, City Manager Friling provided the updated vacation rental data as of Oct. 23. That said the city had 598 active registered rentals whose certificates would expire on Dec. 31; 31 initial applications pending approval; 27 certificates that expired on Dec. 31, 2025; and more than 100 newly identified vacation rentals that were not registered.)
“The value of the inspection,” Chabica emphasized to the board members, “is what it’s verifying and what gets corrected. … Staff checks for the key features,” she continued: smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers on every floor and emergency information for the guests, plus any safety equipment that is required to remain operable and in place between inspections.
Chabica stressed, “Florida’s Department of Health identifies drowning as the leading cause of unintentional deaths among children ages 1 through 4. This is part of why verifying a safety feature is more than an administrative step.”
She further emphasized to the commissioners, “The registration on record alone cannot verify [whether safety equipment is working].”
During her presentation, Chabica also showed the board members the public map that is featured on the city website, in the Geographical Information System (GIS) section. “It gives residents and operators a way to find registration information and the assigned inspector’s contact information,” she explained. “This is a tangible improvement in access to the program. Someone with a question can go on the city’s website, identify the property and an appropriate contact without having to reach out to the city,” Chabica pointed out.
Additionally, she said, staff would be transitioning in November to use of a new compliance monitoring software called Rental Space. It can locate vacation rentals, she added, which would help the staff members who review advertisements to try to find vacation rentals that are not registered with the city.