Oakland Park Perspectives with Anthony Niedwiecki

At last Wednesday’s Oakland Park’s commission meeting, I became aware of an issue that affects so many families in our city. During a discussion about possibly limiting short term rentals, I discovered that single family homes were limited to no more than three unrelated people living together.

Specifically, the city’s code says that single family homes cannot include “more than three (3) individuals unrelated by blood, marriage, or adoption.”

I have been with my partner, Waymon Hudson, for six years. We received a civil union in Vermont almost five years ago and are registered domestic partners here in Broward County. We also recently had a foster son live with us, who is a part of our family that still comes home to visit us regularly from college. Yet, if we had two foster children in our home at the same time, we would have been violating the law!

That is wrong.

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The city had an item on its agenda this past week that would have limited short term rentals in single family neighborhoods. The proposal would have prevented residents from renting their homes for less than 90 days. I spoke against this proposed ordinance at the meeting, and the commission held off on deciding the issue.

I opposed this proposal because I think it tries to correct a problem that can be fixed with existing laws. The idea first surfaced after complaints were made about some loud and unruly college students who were renting a house for spring break. Some on the commission wanted to know if it was possible to limit these types of rentals.

The city came back with a proposal that would prohibit renting a house for less than 90 days. In my speech, I raised how the proposal would have an extremely negative impact on residents throughout the city at a time when many are already struggling with making ends meet. The proposal went way too far in addressing the problem with loud and unruly renters.

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