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Published On 2/10/2020
COTI’s mission in part is to protect the small-town character of our island community. In furtherance of that mission we oppose and urge you to vote no on SB 1128 because it would undermine a time-tested scheme in place on Sanibel to accommodate thousands of visitors each year while preserving the character of our residential neighborhoods....Troubling as well is the finding that “Vacation rentals are residential in nature. ”Residences are places people call home. When we spend a long weekend or a week at a beach front resort, we don’t consider that resort our residence. Our residence is the place we return to when the vacation is over. It’s the place where we interact socially with neighbors and depend on them in times of stress or emergency. That’s the essence of a community — and it’s not found in resorts.
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Published On 2/1/2020
HB 1011 and SB 1028, its senate companion bill, would completely eliminate local regulation of short term rentals, including neighborhood specific limitations on their duration. Instead it would treat them like hotel rentals with a “one size fits all” set of state regulations justified, judging by the legislative findings, by an expansive view of property rights — but also calculated to maximize tourism and the bed tax. Leading up to a scheduled January 21st hearing, COTI wrote members of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Development and Tourism to let them know why it opposes HB 1011 starting with the flawed legislative findings that are its underpinning.
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Published On 1/7/2020
On Sanibel, we pride ourselves Solar panels on top of Bailey’s General Store, Sanibel. As leaders on environment, conservation and sustainability. And Sanibel has more to lose from the effects of climate
change than almost any other place in the country.
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