Letter to Mayor & Brigantine City Council, Harmful Short Term Rental Policy

Dear Brigantine Mayor Sera, Council Members & City Officials, a letter from resident Andrea Sullivan:

I felt the need to convey my concerns, as a result of the last City Council meeting, held on September 20, 2023.

To say that I, as well as many of my 20th Street neighbors, all left that meeting dismayed & disheartened… for it appeared that you have pressed the ‘pause button’ on introducing & voting on legislation to regulate or even eliminate these per day STRs & the havoc they are bringing to our neighborhoods.

The absence of the folks, from the STR Association, at the meeting, spoke volumes as to what is happening. It appeared as if they were tipped off that nothing would be happening at this past Council meeting, that would alter or modify their STR business operations in anyway.

Consequently, they stayed home. On the contrary, we have been expressing our concerns about this issue for several months now, with some residents sounding off for years, BUT… this issue is tabled until which time it is cleared by some sort of legal review.

It’s befuddling to me, that dozens of major US cities, like New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, Honolulu, Aspen, Phoenix, San Francisco, etc., can impose strict STR regulations or even eliminate STRs altogether… yet, our city of Brigantine cannot find a path to do the same?

Even with laws currently part of our zoning codes (246-1), that empowers our city to enforce sanctions on these STRs, but somehow have failed or chosen not to do so.

If the STRs are permitted to continue renting on a per night basis, it’s only a matter of time that our neighborhoods are destroyed & our island community devolves into a ‘ghost town’… with the following outcomes almost certain:

The cost of new construction will deter average families from buying newly constructed homes;The real estate taxes on such new construction will not be affordable to families, but only affordable by investors, who wish to operate such properties as STRs;

Residents, who flank these STR “McMonster” residences, that are being constructed, will soon flee… from all the disruption & craziness that these “McMonster” STRs are raining down on their neighborhoods;

The island will devolve into a “Party Paradise Island”… a destination attracting groups of folks whose only wish is to come to our island for a weekend or a few days of “free-for-all” partying mayhem;

Our retail businesses will suffer & even close down during the off-season, the direct result of the exit of the life-long residents… who will flee the island, to escape the havoc being wreaked by these STRs

Our restaurants will only operate during the summer season & will be closed during the off-season

Our churches will eventually close, because year round residents will no longer live here; Our school will close, because families will no longer be living here; Our athletic fields, rowing club, etc. will fall silent… for our island’s youth will also disappear, because the families have left;

Our Senior Recreational & Community Center will shutter… for all the retired residents will have moved away, relocating elsewhere… where there is better governance or even bans on such “McMonster” STR properties.

The time to act is NOW, for the longer this process goes on, the STR problem will exponentially explode! All these newly constructed “residential homes” are nothing more than hotels in disguise.

Family homes do not have 8, 9, & 10+ bedrooms, all with adjoining full baths! These are hotels/motels!

PLEASE … RIGHT this WRONG!

Restrict or ban STRs!… for they will keep tearing away at the fibers of our island community, until there’s no community left!

Respectfully submitted,

Andrea Sullivan