Just remember, America is on the brink or possibly in a recession.When this happens people stop spending money.When they stop spending, restuarants,shops etc, suffer the most.If you put up any barriers as per the rentals or time periods people may start to look elsewhere.Don,t forget there are many places in the world called paradise.If there is a problem will a one month min rental period really stop it? Or will it just stop people from coming to Marco.I also read that because of the weak dollar Europeans may find the thought of owning a property in Florida very attractive, however only the extremely rich can afford to buy a holiday property where they might spend a month or so a year.For the other 11 months surely they would want some income to pay for the maintenance and house watching.This meeting really should be given some deep thought.The future of some Marco peoples lives could well depend on the outcome.

What you eliminate with a 30 day minimum period for rentals is families. Families are not the threat to the peace and quiet of neighborhoods. There are just as many bad neighbors who are annual renters, or kids of rich parents who hang out in their parents property. We should be attempting to limit the nuisances in the neighborhoods by controlling the number of cars that can be parked around a house, noise ordinance, and other easily identified nuisance issues. Randy

We are a professional couple from the Upper Midwest with 4 kids who have been renting houses and condos on Marco for about 10 years. We usually come down for a week or 2 around Easter, and again for a week in the Fall. Usually at Easter, as many as 5 or 6 other large families from our neighborhood also rent places. Because we have such a variety of ages in the group, we patronize all of Marco's businesses to the fullest. As you can see by my reading this paper online, I take interest in your community, and probably will be buying soon. You will most certainly lose your family renters if Marco goes to 30 day minimums, including the associated taxes and sales revenue to your stores, service providers, charters, and restaurants. We would hate to see it happen, but if it did, we would clearly be picking another destination, as the few hotels you do have are over-priced for the amenities they provide families. I can certainly understand frustration with excessive noise and abusive neighbors, but it sounds like that should be addressed by enforcement of existing laws on noise or keeping the peace rather than a rule that would turn away families and revenues. Good luck, and many renters and prospective buyers will be watching.
Hwood.

Leave it alone! Any restrictions would be an intrusion of private property rights, period. We did vacation rentals of our Marco Island home and condo for many years up to 2004. When the market peaked we sold and took our money and rental buisness to California. This market became to saturated with rentals after the boom as it is today with many unexperenced owners desperatly taking any renter they can get. This is were the problem is--in order to attract the best renters and reduce problems you must have high rental standards and practices in place (handling it yourself personally NOT with a realestate company). All of our years in the Marco Island and The San Francisco Bay area the number of complaints or problems involving nightly/weekly rentals comprised not even a blip. Yes, enforce noise and parking ordinances. But no don't add any more obstacle's in an already tough rental market here. This is a resort island r-e-l-a-x. Anyhow, how many annual renters are you going to get here that will be able to pay enough for the owner to even come close to breaking even-answer=NONE. It's a tough market here with prices and Competition don't make it any tougher. We live here-just don't do buisness here anymore. We have never had any problems with any vacation rental here on Marco-never! City council--leave it alone already.

How about holding the 5 or 6 homeowner/renters responsible instead of punishing the whole island,hmm,now theres a novel idea.