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Please place on the January 31, 2024 City Commission meeting agenda a referral to the Planning Board regarding an amendment to Section 7.2.2.2(d) of the City’s Resiliency Code, pertaining to the fine schedule for violations of the City’s prohibition on the commercial use of single-family homes. The purpose of this referral is to conform the penalties in the Code to statutorily prescribed limits, in order to ensure that the City’s prohibition on the commercial use of single-family homes is fully enforced with the maximum penalties allowed under Florida law.

In 2010, the City enacted Miami Beach Code Section 142-1111 (the “Ordinance”), prohibiting short-term rentals of apartment units or townhomes in specified zoning districts located within its boundaries. Property owners found in violation have been subject to mandatory fines, administered by special masters/magistrates, under the City's “alternate code enforcement system,” which was expressly adopted pursuant to the authority of Part I of Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, also known as the “Local Government Code Enforcement Boards Act” (the “Act”).

In 2018, a property owner filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court, challenging the City’s Ordinance by alleging that the Ordinance conflicted with the Act by imposing fines in excess of the fines authorized by the Act. Following extensive litigation, the Third District Court of Appeal held that the City could not lawfully impose fines in excess of the fines authorized under the Act, and therefore the City was bound to impose fines within statutorily prescribed limits.

An amendment to the fines set forth in Section 7.2.2.2(d) of the City’s Resiliency Code is necessary to bring the Ordinance into full compliance with statutorily prescribed limits, in order to ensure that the City’s prohibition on the commercial use of single-family homes is fully enforced with the maximum penalties allowed under Florida law.