AirBnbs Turn Residential Neighborhood into "Motel Row"

Hollywood Lakes is a South Florida neighborhood in Hollywood. But at least part of the middle-to-upper-middle-class enclave is "completely ruined", according to a Hollywood special magistrate who conducted a monthly code compliance hearing at Hollywood City Hall on Sept. 11.

The culprit? AirBnbs, which are also known as short-term vacation rentals. So says Special Magistrate Judith E. Secher. Sitting at the dais of the Hollywood City Commission Chambers, she explains: Families buy homes in a residential area for their wives, grandmothers, children, and dogs. "But they're screwed. They're living in motel row" now.

Secher was describing a part of Hollywood Lakes with attractive to impressive homes and leisurely yards near South Lake. Another part of Hollywood Lakes is across Hollywood Boulevard, which leads to the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. It is called North Lake.

On Sept. 11, a poetically malevolent day in American history, Secher warned a representative for a Columbian-based business that it better get its act together. The owners had been operating their AirBnb on South Lake without a license since March. The owners have also been renting out the property by advertising online. This, too, is against the law if the vacation rental property is not registered with the city. About 150,000 people live in this coastal city.

So, the special magistrate ruled the company had 15 days to comply with local ordinances or suffer fines of $1,000 a day until it comes into compliance.

What happened in front of the special magistrate is an anecdote. But it paints a picture that gets fully developed by City of Hollywood statistics and interviews with residents who endure noise, wild parties, and even criminal activity, including gun fire.

According to city records, there are more than 1,700 AirBnbs in Hollywood. Many are registered. But a Hollywood activist who has been following the problem since 2010 estimates there may be another 1,000 short-term vacation rental properties that don't comply with this basic city requirement. However, an online site pegs the number of Hollywood AirBnbs at more than 5,500.

These cold numbers catch fire when you speak with people who live near the AirBnbs. You learn about destroyed swales and speeding that endangers children walking to catch a school bus. Sometimes, gun fire takes aim at otherwise quiet neighborhoods, with vacation rental properties getting wounded. In an extreme case, Terry Cantrell, the president of the Hollywood Lakes Civic Association, says Hollywood Police Department officers found more than 100 spent casings after they got called about a gang shootout.

Cantrell says it was not always this dramatic. He sent me a letter he wrote to the city in 2010. Cantrell warned about the nascent AirBnb population sprouting up in Hollywood Lakes. Back then, folks complained about noise, traffic and possible fire code safety violations.

Unfortunately, though, the offspring of those pioneer short-term rentals mutated and multiplied, taking over many homes in the Lakes and spreading across residential neighborhoods around Hollywood. Many are purchased by companies that can afford to outbid people interested in moving into a single-family home. This unleashing of animal spirits capitalism also depletes the availability of housing. It can even decrease the number of families with school-age children, putting more strains on the Broward County Public School System, which is working on plans to close schools because of dwindling attendance.

But dealing with the explosion of AirBnbs is a complicated matter. That's mainly because the powerful state government in Tallahassee passed a law that "preempts" local government prerogative to deal with short-term vacation rentals.

Localities can enforce criminal laws, and ordinances that cover noise, for example. Unfortunately, the city of Hollywood failed to write a strict AirBnb ordinance that would have been grandfathered in before the state preempted local control in 2011.

The decision to take no action occurred when Peter Bober was mayor. Cantrell was disappointed by the decision of Bober and the Hollywood City Commission, although he puts it in perspective. He says they probably didn't realize that exponential growth in numbers and trouble would follow.

However, the failure to act in 2011 got a reprieve of sorts. Three years later, the state Legislature amended the preemption law. That allowed localities to pass some regulations, which the city of Hollywood has done. So Cantrell, the civic activist, gives the city props for its decision a few years ago to employ technology to help residents file complaints about AirBnbs.

The consequence of state permission to regulate AirBnbs draws mixed reactions from people affected by noise, traffic-related problems and felonious activity. Says Lori Goldstein, a Hollywood Lakes resident and educator, "The city has done a great job with the limited amount of latitude to act allowed to them. But it is limited. Their hands are tied in many areas, and their budget is capped. And some of the owners don't care much about rules and laws, and have expensive attorneys to fight for them."

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