Editor –
If you own property, do real estate, or rent out your property, I highly recommend a massive "wake up" on South Padre Island as a local to attend Oct 27 workshop on short-term rentals.
There are but two industries here that people tend to forget, the first one is real estate, and the second one is vacation rentals. They are directly related. There are no other businesses here. The rest of everything we do here feeds off that.
We wanted to inform all of you that the South Padre Island City Council has set a date for a vacation rental workshop. The workshop will take place on Oct 27 at City Hall.
Below are the items the City Council has on the agenda for the workshop.
A. Creation of a License - Fee $400/Annual.
This diminishes the revenue for vacation rental management companies but not hotels. If you're a realtor, this is of interest because rental income with the passage of all these new proposals would diminish rental income.
Nearly every owner that inquires about purchasing a second home asks. What's the rental income? Rental income that is diminished will lower the value of the properties here.
Therefore your ability to sell the property and your commissions will be diminished. This is a fact.
B. Removal of Registration Fee
I can't see why they would add a $400 fee and remove a $50 fee. Shouldn't the $50 fee per property per year be used for enforcement currently? It's not being used for that. There is no enforcement of current ordinances in place.
C. Fines for Violation
No fines have been issued in the last year for any violations of ordinances currently in place for short-term rental permits. So, again, there is near zero enforcement of current ordinances pertaining to short-term rentals.
D. Signage
Signage, maybe if that particular complex has a front desk; otherwise, will we be listing every single owner's contact number on this huge billboard outside each property?
E. Fire Marshall or Building Inspections
Realtors take note. You're not going to be closing on properties that aren't brought up to code, and we have a lot of older properties down here.
F. Manager/Owner Response Time
This is currently a requirement but not enforced. I'm aware that local property management companies already operate with a 24-hour operating schedule, while out-of-town owners are self-managing, and no such system is in place.
G. Suspension of License
We will need to see the number of how many short-term rental permits that have been revolved in the last 12 calendar months. I'm going to make a fundamental assumption here that the answer is zero.
H. Weddings/Special Events Restrictions Parking
We have a mass gathering ordinance. I assume if you want to have over 20 family and friends at your house, you'll need a permit for that at some point. That's where this will go. That dinner party is just too large. Sorry, you can't have your extended family over.
This will be a critical workshop for all involved to attend. During this meeting, we want to ensure our voice is heard and stand up for our rental industry.
Items many of you may say, "Well, I live here. I'm for this, but not for this."
The problem here is when you open the door. You crack it. They never take ordinances off the books. They keep adding more and more. That's how Government works.
You can say as a local, "Well, I want it much more quiet here."
I like the idea of a retirement community. That's great, but how do you expect the restaurants and bars to survive if they don't have Tourists? They will close, then apparently you will eat at home all the time. That doesn't sound like a very interesting place to want to buy a second home to me.
Several of these proposed regulations need further discussion.
Further explanation and data need to be provided by the city to rationalize these new regulations being imposed. Currently, many ordinances aren't even enforced anyway, and they keep proposing new ordinances. Not logical.
Imagine if nobody followed the 35 mph speed limit. Instead of writing speeding tickets, they decided to drop the speed limit to 25. That wouldn't make any sense, would it? Unfortunately, current ordinances are not being enforced in nearly any way. That's where we need to start.
Pretty soon, when you fart in public, expect a fine. After that, everything is an application, a permit, a fine, a proposed new ordinance a runaround.
– Chad Hart, Founder, South Padre Trips
