Seminole resident Hillary Simpson said her family has had to leave their home to get some sleep on the weekends while rowdy guests partied in a nearby short-term rental home.
She voiced her concerns at Tuesday’s Pinellas County Commission meeting, where the board voted unanimously to amend its land development code for unincorporated areas and impose a fee schedule for these rentals.
The amended code would keep the maximum occupancy at 10 people and remove an exemption that did not count children under 12 toward that limit. It would also impose 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. quiet hours and require owners to report any sexual predators to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
But some residents argue the county needs to impose more restrictions on rental property guests.
Seminole resident Ericka Hering urged the county to get rid of the required decibel meter readings and instead use a “plainly audible” or “plainly discernable” definition, such as what is enforced in Indian River County.
“We have all the evidence you could ever need to prove certain short-term rentals to be party houses that are extremely disruptive overnight,” Hering said.
Building and Development Review Services Director Kevin McAndrew said the approach will be to monitor how effective existing response protocols are. He said they’ve updated their program to include a 24/7 hotline for complaints.
He said they would consider additional measures, such as a rapid response team, after they’ve judged the effectiveness of the hotline.
Vice Chair Dave Eggers said the effectiveness of this ordinance comes down to if the board can enforce the regulations.
Eggers said there has not been enough discussion on a rapid response team and said they need more people to be able to respond in a “timely fashion.”
“The point is if they call and we do respond four hours later, six hours later or the next morning, what good does it do?” he said.
He acknowledged that, with short-term rentals, the rulebreaker usually moves out before officials can address a noise complaint or other violation.
Eggers said Pinellas County is facing this issue because the state has taken away the county’s ability to maintain neighborhoods the way it wants. So, these changes are being made within the confines of state law, while also trying to do what is best for the county.
He said enforcement is important, especially in preventing commercial activity in residential areas and monitoring noise. He said this will mean more inspections and registration requirements.
