Photo by LESLIE WILLIAMS HALE

Resident Roger Frederick details his run-ins with problem rental properties to the Rental Housing Advisory Committee Wednesday night. In addition to the 30 or so present residents, city councilors-elect Jerry Gibson, Frank Recker and Wayne Waldack were present. Recker, like many other citizens, pleaded with the committee to form some solid recommendations the City Council could enact to relieve residents who say their lives are being burdened by noisy, unruly short-term renters.

Photo by LESLIE WILLIAMS HALE

Resident Roger Frederick details his run-ins with problem rental properties to the Rental Housing Advisory Committee Wednesday night. In addition to the 30 or so present residents, city councilors-elect Jerry Gibson, Frank Recker and Wayne Waldack were present. Recker, like many other citizens, pleaded with the committee to form some solid recommendations the City Council could enact to relieve residents who say their lives are being burdened by noisy, unruly short-term renters.

Marco Island’s newest city-sanctioned committee continues to inch its way toward an identity and mission, aided in part by a public forum Wednesday evening.

The forum, which was also the Rental Housing Advisory Committee’s second meeting, allowed residents to step forward with complaints, concerns and commiserations over the way to achieve a balance between the quiet life full-timers crave and the profitability of short-term rental properties.

Though some in the room, including one committee member, were clearly in favor of eliminating all rentals of less than 30 days, everyone was in agreement that at least some form of regulation was needed.

Many of the comments registered demonstrated resignation among residents living alongside problem properties.

“There are a number of people on this island who have sort of thrown in the towel and stopped reporting these nuisance situations,” said committee member Keith Dameron.

Wednesday’s forum was scheduled following an inaugural meeting in which the committee received reports from city staff, including Police Chief Roger Reinke. Reinke told the committee he had only a handful of rental properties that were reported as repeat offenders in 2007, determined by whether they were written up three times or more.

The forum’s purpose was to get a handle on how accurate a representation that was of the number of problematic rentals on the island.

Esther Karpman detailed to the committee her regular problems with a short-term rental across the canal from her home, where a rotating cast of vacationers raise a ruckus during every hour of the day. Karpman told the committee the home’s owner lives in Canada, and actually owns three homes on the same street, Taylor Court.

“It looks like a tenement house,” she lamented. “All of the dirty towels are hanging all over the back of the home.” Most residents simply pleaded with the committee to establish some guidelines police and code officers could enforce in order to keep the peace.

“I have no quarrel with people renting, provided we’ve got some regulations,” said Robert Burns, a resident since 1975 who described being wakened at 2 a.m. to the sounds of shouting revelers swimming in the canal behind his home.

Also represented were the part- and full-time residents who rent properties to short-term tenants on the island. Most agreed that regulation is necessary, but cautioned prudence and common sense.

“I believe a lot of people wouldn’t come here if they couldn’t come here for a week,” said property owner and landlord Paul Demos.

When committee member Karen Salvi asked Demos how he would suggest dealing with “slum landlords,” he conceded that some rental properties are problematic. He mentioned the controls he places on his own properties, including limiting the renters to seven people within a single family, bound by a rental agreement that states they must leave if they break the rules. He said he also communicates regularly with the neighbors and provides them with copies of the rental agreement so they can contact him if a renter gets out of line.

“I believe that there needs to be some general rules here,” he said. “The people here are not adhering to this. They’re not using common sense rules.” John Defalco, who testified to being both a rental owner and at other times a neighbor to problem properties, told the committee that he is “very conscious of what goes on in the house” because he is a resident himself.

“I am very concerned that we’ll overreact and impact my ability to rent,” he said. “We have to be careful what we pass.” City Councilor Chuck Kiester, the committee’s non-voting chair, cautioned the audience that the board is merely acting in an advisory capacity and could simply make recommendations to the City Council to pass.

Aside from occasional impassioned exchanges between residents with differing viewpoints, the meeting was an orderly forum, attended by about two-dozen residents not on the committee. At the meeting’s end, Kiester asked city staff to draw up a list of “possible loopholes” that were allowing problem rentals to get by without punishment.

“At the next meeting we’ll discuss those loopholes and how best to address them,” he said.

That meeting has been tentatively scheduled for March 12, with a loose plan to hold the sessions every other Wednesday. Check back with the Eagle to keep up with meeting times of the Rental Housing Advisory Committee.

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