Rent control ordinance shouldn’t be on Orange County ballots, appeal court rules
An Orange County circuit judge erred in allowing voters to weigh in on a proposed rent control ordinance, an appeal court has ruled, siding with realtors and landlords over renter advocacy groups who argued soaring housing prices constituted an emergency.
But in downtown Orlando, supporters of the measure reacted to the decision with chants of “Count the votes! We vote yes!”
Commissioner Emily Bonilla, who proposed a rent-cap to help tenants avoid homelessness, ripped into corporate landlords.
“They don’t care about laws, affordable housing or the renters struggling to make ends meet,” she said of groups fighting the ballot issue. “They’re using everything they have to defeat a people-powered, temporary measure intended to stop the bleeding.”
The social-justice organization Florida Rising and labor union UNITE HERE had previously planned the gathering at the Orange County Administration Building to debunk what they had labeled as “deceptive” advertising against the ordinance in campaign mail funded by Florida Realtors.
Realtors have poured about $700,000 in a mail campaign against the measure, equating it to socialism.
Landlord groups welcomed the appellate decision, which is not yet final and may get a rehearing in appeals court next week.
“The Florida Apartment Association is grateful that the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled to remove this dangerous and illegal measure from consideration on the ballot,” association spokesperson Chip Tatum said in an email. “Moving forward, we remain committed to working alongside state and local policymakers on real solutions that bolster the supply of housing and address the needs of a growing population.”
A sharply divided Orange County Commission voted 4-3 in August to let voters decide if rent increases should be capped. If approved by voters, the ordinance would have imposed a one-year cap of rent hikes for potentially 104,000 apartments in Orange County at 9.8%.
The measure appears on the ballot under the heading “Rent Stabilization Ordinance.”
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, one of three board votes against moving the proposal to the ballot, said the county will file for a re-hearing by Monday, the deadline set by the appellate panel. Lawyers for the Florida Realtors and the Florida Apartment Association must submit a reply by Tuesday.
Demings said the decision “confirmed that the law in Florida sets an extremely high bar for local governments wishing to pass a rent control measure.” He declined further comment, citing pending litigation.
After the Florida Apartment Association and Florida Realtors sued to block the measure, it narrowly survived a review by Circuit Judge Jeff Ashton, who said he thought the ordinance was “contrary to established law” but decided that residents should be allowed to vote on it, anyway.
The appellate panel agreed 2-1 with Ashton’s analysis of the measure but not his decision to leave it on the ballot.
In a 35-page majority opinion, Judge Dan Travers noted that a 1977 state law intended to discourage government interference in rental housing markets requires local officials to determine whether a housing emergency exists and poses “a menace” to public health.
The appeals court decided Ashton should not have allowed the measure to be presented to voters because the ballot summary, limited by statute to 75 words, was defective and misleading.
The ruling granting an injunction against the ordinance — which comes as early voting has already begun in Orange ahead of the Nov. 8 election — didn’t specify how it should be enforced.
Election Supervisor Bill Cowles said he will follow whatever orders the courts issue.
The supervisor’s lawyer, Nick Shannin, pointed out in written arguments to the appeals court that it’s too late to take rent stabilization off the ballot and too late to reconfigure tabulation software to prevent machines from counting ballots in favor and against.
Cowles said the courts could order election officials to not certify rent-stabilization results.
In a seven-page dissent, appellate Judge Jay Cohen said Orange County acted after carefully considering its housing quandary.
“The county presented a plethora of facts supporting its position that a housing crisis exists... so grave as to constitute a serious menace to the general public,” he wrote, citing mandatory language from the state law. “For the most part, Realtors did not dispute those facts.”
