Cocoa Beach commission advances vacation rental ordinance and extends registration grace period

The Cocoa Beach City Commission voted 5-0 to adopt Ordinance No. 16-97 on first reading, updating the city’s vacation rental code and adding enforcement tools for repeat violators. Commissioners also approved a separate resolution extending a temporary reduced-fee registration grace period for vacation rental owners.

Ordinance No. 16-97, as amended by the commission at first reading, updates Chapter 26.5 (Vacation Rentals) of the city code to revise definitions, grandfathering provisions, registration and enforcement methods, and penalties. Two changes added at the meeting require (1) that each vacation rental owner or agent place a city-supplied sticker in an easily visible location near the front door listing contact information for the owner or agent and other information the city determines; and (2) that registrations renew annually on the anniversary of the initial registration date rather than all renewing on January 1.

City staff said the sticker is intended to give first responders and code enforcement immediate contact information for an owner or manager when responding to incidents. Staff also said staggered renewal dates are intended to distribute inspection workload over the year rather than concentrate inspections in a single month.

The commission considered public comment from multiple short-term-rental owners and managers. Several speakers representing condominium resorts (including Sandcastles and Beach Island Resort) said that mixed-use commercial/residential complexes are managed with on-site staff and HOAs and argued a citywide one-size-fits-all approach could unduly burden commercial/resort properties. Some speakers urged fee structures and enforcement that reflect differences between single-family rentals and managed multifamily properties.

In addition to the ordinance vote, the commission adopted a resolution (recorded in the meeting as Resolution number 2025-04, per the agenda language) extending a reduced-fee time period for payment of vacation rental registration fees (the staff summary said the extension would run through May 5). The commission also instructed staff to return with a revised fee schedule that could include tiering by unit size and by single-family versus multifamily units.

Ending: The ordinance moves to a second reading with the new amendments incorporated; the registration-fee extension and the work to draft a tiered fee schedule will be brought back to the commission for final action.