Baldwin County’s vacation rental ordinance will soon be updated, so a public hearing was held last week to solicit input from residents and owners of rental properties who may be affected.
Commissioners heard from Admiralty Way resident Jeff Kelly at their June 4 meeting, who highlighted portions of Putnam County’s ordinance on shortterm rentals. District 5 board member Henry Craig suggested the Putnam County ordinance be reviewed for possible ideas, and his colleagues agreed. County Manager Carlos Tobar was asked to look into it, and he sought the assistance of County Attorney Brandon Palmer.
What board members received before the July 16 hearing was a detailed update of Baldwin County’s Short-term Vacation Rentals Ordinance.
“We’ve taken a number of suggestions of the board,” Palmer said at the outset. “We’ve put together a preliminary suggestion based on comments from the board as well as ideas that we were able to extract from other ordinances throughout the state.”
Kelly was among those who spoke, expressing his appreciation for the efforts of the board in getting to that point and his hope that it would be adopted.
“I do have some concerns about how to enforce it,” Kelly added, “but we’ll worry about that later. If you guys will pass this one, we’ll take the next step whenever we need to.”
Pam Peacock of Montego Bay Road addressed the commissioners as well.
“My neighborhood has been impacted by this from issues such as trash to trespassing,” Peacock said. “These people come and use people’s docks other than from whom they are renting. That makes it a liability for me if someone gets hurt on my property. Hopefully we can come up with some ways to enforce it.”
According to records obtained on Tuesday by The Baldwin Bulletin, of the 21 contacts with the Code Enforcement Office regarding short-term rentals since October 2022, 20 were made by Kelly (or Jeffrey Thomas Kelly) and one by Peacock.
Kelly’s notifications to the county dealt with what he believed to be too many vehicles and renters on the property per the guidelines on at least nine occasions. Other complaints included excessive noise, trash, profane language, and unruly behavior.
Topics commissioners and attendees discussed included who might be designated the “agent” for the rental property, consequences of violations of the ordinance, including fines and suspension of licenses, and the provision requiring the agent to appear on the premises within two hours of notification by an official that a problem exists.
As to that latter topic, some thought two hours was unreasonable due to multiple factors, such as time of day, circumstances that led to the notification, and distance of the owner from the property.
“The application requires the owner to designate who will be their agent to do whatever necessary, including appear on the premises within two hours,” Palmer pointed out.
There was also considerable discussion as to who would be an agent. Should it be a real estate person, one board member asked. Local realtor Robert Binion addressed that point.
“When you say ‘agent,’ I’m assuming you’re talking about the authorized person the owner put down,” he observed. “That could be a cousin, mother, brother … they’re not talking about real estate agent.”
Binion added that he believes federal law prohibits the county from requiring the owner to put a realtor or real estate person as the contact person.
“That’s where the rubber meets the road,” District 3 Commissioner Sammy Hall declared. “That’s going to be the hardest part. You can make up all the rules you want, and if you don’t enforce them, they’re just on a piece of paper.”
Regarding ordinance violations, the minimum fine in the current ordinance is $250. Tobar said this past Tuesday, he expected the board was leaning toward doubling that.
One speaker questioned who would be available for someone to contact with complaints or problems after business hours and on the weekends. Tobar responded that Craig would discuss adjusting the short-term rental fees to help address that issue.
Tobar reminded board members that the current fee is $100 per year per rental unit.
“I have seen some as high as $350,” he said. “That would be up to you; that would be one way to get help for these afterhours costs.”
Time did not permit Craig to share his thoughts on the fee structure, as the hearing was adjourned due to the board’s scheduled meeting to follow immediately.
“There will be another public hearing,” Tobar said Tuesday. “They did not have time to get into a couple of items, including the fees.”
However, no timetable for that meeting has been set, the county manager added.