The City of Fort Myers does not impose an annual cap on the number of rental nights a short-term rental may host. Florida Statute § 509.032(7)(b) expressly prohibits local governments from regulating the duration or frequency of vacation rentals unless an ordinance was adopted on or before June 1, 2011 (the grandfather clause). Fort Myers did not adopt any pre-2011 STR night-cap ordinance, so the city is preempted from enacting one now. A licensed Fort Myers STR may operate up to 365 nights per year as long as the operator maintains the Florida DBPR Vacation Rental Dwelling/Condo license, the City of Fort Myers Local Business Tax Receipt, the Lee County Local Business Tax Receipt, and all generally-applicable tax, zoning, building, fire, noise, and nuisance compliance.
Florida's vacation rental preemption is the strongest in the United States with respect to night caps. FS § 509.032(7)(b) provides that 'a local law, ordinance, or regulation may not . . . regulate the duration or frequency of rental' of a vacation rental, with a narrow carve-out only for ordinances adopted on or before June 1, 2011. The Florida Attorney General has clarified through opinion (AGO 2018-09 and related opinions) that grandfathered ordinances may not be amended to be more restrictive without losing the grandfather protection. The City of Fort Myers did not adopt a pre-2011 STR night-cap ordinance, so the city is preempted from enacting any 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, 120-day, or 180-day cap on the number of nights a Fort Myers STR may host. The 2024 SB 280, which would have modestly relaxed certain elements of the preemption while moving registration to state-level DBPR administration, was vetoed by Governor DeSantis in June 2024 - the 2011-vintage preemption framework remains intact. A licensed Fort Myers STR may therefore operate up to 365 nights per year. The only meaningful constraints on STR operation frequency in Fort Myers are: (1) the operator must maintain the Florida DBPR Vacation Rental Dwelling or Condo license (required if rented more than 3 times per year for periods of less than 30 days; below that frequency, DBPR licensing is not triggered and the rental is not a 'vacation rental' under FS § 509.242); (2) the operator must maintain the City of Fort Myers Local Business Tax Receipt and the Lee County Local Business Tax Receipt; (3) the operator must collect and remit the 6% Florida state sales tax, 0.5% Lee County discretionary surtax, and 5% Lee County Tourist Development Tax on every taxable booking; (4) generally-applicable zoning, building, fire, noise, parking, and nuisance ordinances apply to every operating night. Cities elsewhere in Florida (Miami Beach, Anna Maria Island, etc.) that operate apparent night caps generally do so under the pre-2011 grandfather clause; Fort Myers does not have that grandfather coverage.
Because there is no codified night cap in Fort Myers, there is no violation for 'exceeding' an annual night limit. However, operating without the required Florida DBPR Vacation Rental Dwelling/Condo license is a state violation enforceable by DBPR with fines and orders to cease operation (FS § 509.241), and operating without the City of Fort Myers Local Business Tax Receipt or Lee County Local Business Tax Receipt is a local violation enforceable with back-tax assessment and penalties. Failing to collect and remit the 6% state sales tax, 0.5% county surtax, or 5% Lee TDT on any operating night is enforceable by the Florida Department of Revenue and the Lee County Clerk Inspector General's Tourist Tax Office respectively. Generally-applicable zoning violations (operating an STR in a zone that prohibits transient occupancy under a pre-2011 grandfathered Land Development Code provision, if any) would be enforceable by Code Enforcement on the same terms as any other zoning violation. The preemption protects against STR-specific frequency caps but does NOT shield operators from generally-applicable tax, licensing, building, fire, noise, parking, or nuisance enforcement.
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