Condo owners complain about notice for short-term rental registration; council staff report most milestone inspections received

Multiple condo owners used public comment time at the Destin City Council meeting to say they had not received timely notice of a short-term rental registration fee and had only received a courtesy card recently.

Caroline Ross and Yvette Rodriguez said they had not been notified before a March ordinance and only received the notice card within days of the meeting. Rodriguez called the lack of earlier notice "taxation without representation" and said condo owners pay substantial amounts already. City staff (identified in the meeting as Kim) responded that the short-term rental registration fee and associated ordinance were adopted after multiple public hearings that were advertised "in accordance with state law," and that the card was a courtesy notice sent to condo owners the city could identify in its database. City Manager Larry Jones told council the cards had been sent as a proration notice and that staff was working to build a fuller condo-owner database.

Separately, council and staff discussed milestone inspection reports for condominiums older than 30 years. Staff reported 51 milestone phase reports had been sent and 48 had been received; three remained outstanding and staff were attempting to identify contacts for those properties. Council members stressed the city’s statutory oversight responsibilities for the milestone inspections and asked staff to accelerate follow-up on missing submissions.

Council members also said the city will receive data from the state Department of Revenue about short-term rentals and owners in a data dump expected the next day and that staff would analyze owner lists and identify missing registrations for follow-up by the next council meeting.

No council action to change the ordinance was taken at the meeting; public comments were recorded.