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An alternative short term rental ordinance has been introduced by city resident Jon Biondo and a list of 250 petitioners.

The initiative is being placed before the governing body in unison with the city’s proposed regulations to manage the Airbnb-style rentals, with the clear opposing distinction of eliminating the mandate that a short term rental property must be the owner’s primary residence.

Biondo, in speaking during the public portion of the Wednesday night City Council meeting, expressed his disappointed with the city’s 13-page proposed regulations, introduced later that evening.

“I don’t think there is anything more fundamental than this issue and it should be up for city vote,” Biondo said. “You are taking my property and devaluing it, and there are a million examples.”

Biondo, a lawyer who runs the humanitarian Youth of Malawi nonprofit, bought and refurbished a two family Victorian home [below right] that he lists on a short term rental site. The home boasts nine bedrooms, two kitchens and 5½ baths and can sleep up to 18. There is a required four night stay minimum with a nightly rate ranging from $1,000 to $1,800.

He questioned whether the City would delay a final vote until City Clerk Cindy Dye returns an assessment of whether the 250 supporting signatures are active registered Asbury Park voters.

City attorney Fred Raffetto said Dye has 20 days from the Oct. 10 submission to determine the sufficiency of the petition.

“If the petition is found to be insufficient the law allows the petition to be amended within 10 days of notification,” Raffetto said. “If on the other hand, the petition is found to be sufficient the clerk shall submit the same to the council without delay…and provisions will be made for a public hearing.”

The City Council will then have 20 days to pass the petitioned ordinance, but if they fail to do so the ordinance would go before the voters in the 2018 general election or during a special election not less than 40 or no more than 60 days, depending on the amount of signatures garnered.

A special election would change the petitioned initiative to a referendum requiring a percentage of registered voters from the 2015 general assembly election. In this case, the proposed ordinance initiative would need an additional 100 signatures to spark a general election.

Homeowner Nancy Fasano, a Grand Avenue resident who purchased her home four years ago, said because she and her husband are not legal city residents, the city’s proposed ordinance would force them to sell.

Like Biondo and others, she paid a $100 inspection fee this summer for each new short term rental.

“It was kind of ridiculous but I kept doing it because that was the law,” she said. “Now you are telling me, next year I can’t even do that. I’m not going to be allowed to use this house as a [short term] summer rental at all. I think there should be some consideration, since I’ve been doing this for four years legally, there should be some way to include people who have been allowed to do this in the past.”

Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said those who applied for the 2017 Summer Rental License were grandfathered in because they did not want to harm those who previously qualified.

“We had many lengthy discussions to try to afford as many Asbury Park residents that we could the ability to do short term rentals,” Quinn said.

A second reading and final vote on the municipal proposed ordinance is now slated for Nov. 8 during the 7 p.m. City Council meeting.

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