On August 31, 2000 State Administrative Law Judge L.J. Sartin recommended that the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) approve the city's Transient Rental Ordinance, finding it consistent with the city's Principles for Guiding Development.
For some— whose primary concern is Key West's economic, environmental, and cultural sustainability— it was a case of patience finally being rewarded. But for others, who view residential neighborhoods as nothing more than a business opportunity, long resisted change may soon be here.
The ordinance's benefits to our community— once implemented— will be two-fold. The most immediate result will be that residents will be able to shut down unlicensed hotels in their neighborhoods. Anyone who works in the morning and has been kept awake by vacationer's all-night pool parties knows all too well the incompatibility of the lifestyles of residents and people on vacation.
The second more far reaching effect is that the city will have an effective tool to begin really protecting our existing long-term housing supply, the key to solving our dual problems of the high cost and short supply of housing.
Legal challenges to the Transient Rental Ordinance by owners and operators of unlicensed transient rentals have been long and costly to the taxpayers. The time is close when their stall tactics and legal maneuvering to squeeze in just one more season of unlicensed rentals may finally be over.
The citizens who worked so hard and with such patience throughout this long process are to be commended, as is Judge Sartin for his fairness. While this may not be the final challenge to our ordinance, the end is in sight. We are closer to our long awaited goal of having a Transient Rental Ordinance that will protect all our neighborhoods.