Destin homeowners call for boarding-house crackdown

Destin has to crack down on property owners who break city rules and turn their single-family homes into packed boarding houses, the City Council says.

Monday, the council voted to have staff draw up ordinances that would restrict homeowners from creating boarding houses in single-family zoning, and told the Code Enforcement Department to make such houses a priority.

“It’s time to send a bigger stick over to wherever it needs to be sent,” Councilor Kelly Windes said. “I would urge (City Manager Greg) Kisela to put all the backbone he can find into that code-enforcement operation.”

City rules say that “accessory dwelling units” in single-family neighborhoods, such as garage apartments or guest houses, cannot be leased out separately from the main house, nor can houses or accessory units be subdivided into apartments.

Nevertheless, Kisela said Monday, between 15 and 20 accessory dwellings around town were being used for multiple rentals. He said owners have found ways around the city rules, such as not requiring a lease.

Kisela said staff had proposed two changes to the rules: Discouraging boarding houses by requiring the owner live in the main house, and restricting guest houses and garage apartments to relatives of the owner.

He said that in other cases, Code Enforcement could crack down harder, for example when owners turned part of the main house into a separate apartment “which is a clear violation of our code. We need to be more assertive.”

The homeowners who’d come to the meeting to discuss boarding houses agreed.

“We’re not going to go ask for a Gestapo to go knock on people’s doors and ask if they’re renting,” homeowner Mike Williams said, “but look at the excess trash cans. Talk to the local mailman whose delivering to one mailbox for three or four families.”

A dozen hands went up when Williams asked if any of his neighbors had suffered problems because of the boarding houses. Some of them said their children couldn’t go outside without hearing profanity from the boarders, or seeing one of the men smoking pot.

Homeowner Linda Milligan presented the city with a 2006 statement by Larry Graham, that neither the accessory structure on Graham’s Fifth Street property nor any part of the main house would be rented out separately. She said Graham had violated that agreement.

“To me, that gives us the right, whether you put any more ordinances on the books or not,” Milligan said.

The Log could not reach Graham for comment.

Williams said he’d called the city, asked if he could rent out an accessory unit, and been told no, it wouldn’t be allowed.

“What is the loophole that allows owners to do this?” he asked the council.

The council rejected the idea of restricting accessory units to relatives, but voted unanimously to have staff turn the “owner occupied” proposal into an ordinance, and to draft rules restricting accessory-unit use in areas where the city found it incompatible.

Councilor Tom Weidenhamer also suggested Destin look at steps taken in other cities — and that the city should look at solutions to problems that haven’t happened yet, but might in the future.

Kisela said it would take a couple of months to draft the ordinances, and that code-enforcement will take just as long before any fines can be levied or imposed.

City Land Use Attorney Scott Shirley said that while some existing homes might be grandfathered in, there might be other violations the city could charge them with.

Councilor Jim Wood said it reminded him of the problems with removing derelict boats: Everyone could see the boats needed to be disposed of, but it still took a long time before the city could have them towed.

FOLLOW ALONG LIVE

Reporter Fraser Sherman offers live updates from City Hall during Monday's council meeting. Click on http://frasersmind.freedomblogging.com/ for a play by play of the meeting.