VERO BEACH — Central Beach homeowner and businessman Charles Fitz will now ask an appeals court to decide if the City of Vero Beach can legally ban vacation rentals of less than 30 days in residential neighborhoods; in the meantime, Vero will be enforcing its zoning code.
Judge Paul Kanarek Monday ruled that the case of Charles Fitz versus the City of Vero Beach would not go to trial and instead be disposed by a final judgment from the bench. Upon receiving a very favorable summary judgment last month, Vero’s trial attorney John Frost asked Kanarek to simply affirm that code enforcement officials have the right to fine vacation rental owners who violate city code.
“If we came back to you, it would be the same thing you already heard,” Frost, a Bartow-based attorney who represents Vero in various litigation, told Kanarek on Monday.
“I’m going to grant the city’s motion and enter a final judgment,” Kanarek said. “And you can take this issue up with the Fourth District.”
Fitz and his attorneys claim that Vero changed its code in 2015 with the intent to ban vacation rentals in the city, and in doing so trampled on a 2011 Florida law prohibiting cities from toughening local rules against vacation rentals.
Kanarek didn’t see it that way, so now the matter goes to the appeals court.
Fitz’s lead attorney, Johnathan Rhodeback, said he expects the case to take about a year to come up before an appeals judge. Unless another Florida case is brought to an appeals court first, Rhodeback said the Vero case would likely be the first time an action of a local government as it relates to the 2011 law pre-empting the power to regulate vacation rentals to the state is weighed in an appellate venue.
Fitz, who owns multiple properties in Central Beach and was cited in April 2015 for renting out his home on Fiddlewood Road to vacationers for fewer than 30 days, declined to comment, preferring to speak through his legal team.
