Fort Lauderdale is brimming with short-term rentals. A shooting has residents worried

Jason Fogelman was in his car on the way to grab lunch with his 9-year-old son earlier this month when shots rang out at a short-term vacation rental in his Coral Ridge Isles neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale.

“I immediately knew what it was when I heard them,” he told the Miami Herald. “The first thing I did was look in my rear view mirror and make sure that nobody was on my tail trying to get out of there.”

Fogelman said he sped up, turned the corner and called 911. On his way back home, he saw 25 police cars. The road to his home was blocked, and helicopters were hovering above. He later learned what had happened: A 20-year-old man, Travon Warren of Pompano Beach, had been shot at the home and died at Imperial Point hospital the next day, according to Fort Lauderdale police.

Days later, Fogelman and several other residents in the neighborhood voiced their frustrations with ongoing issues with short-term rentals in Fort Lauderdale at a community meeting. Fogelman called the fatal shooting “the tip of the iceberg,” pointing to another deadly shooting that happened less than a year ago at an Airbnb in a community a mile-and-a-half away.

“We’ve been dealing with disruptions to our peace,” he told the crowd, which included Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and officials with the city’s code enforcement division. Last week, city officials revoked the short-term rental license of the property where the fatal shooting occurred, a first for Fort Lauderdale.

The shooting on March 9 on the 1400 block of Northeast 57th Street amplified the concerns residents have about short-term rentals, including Airbnbs and Vrbos, and came as the state legislature passed SB 280, a bill that establishes local registration programs for short-term rentals, limits the number of guests in short-term rental properties and puts in place penalties for rentals that violate local ordinances. The bill would give the state more power to regulate short-term rentals while in some ways restricting the ability of local governments to make their own rules.

The state bill would also require municipalities to allow owners of vacation rentals 15 days to rectify their violations before a fine is issued. It would require a 30-day rental suspension for any property with violations on five or more days within a 60-day period.

That would be a lesser penalty than what Fort Lauderdale currently enforces. Under the city’s ordinance, after three violations — regardless of the time frame — a short-term rental can be suspended for 180 days; a fourth violation can lead to a one-year suspension. Trantalis said he’s written Gov. Ron Desantis, urging him not to sign the legislation.

“I’m hopeful that he will hear enough of mayors and people around the state to say, let’s stop the madness of not allowing neighbors and communities to regulate their own vacation rental policy,” he said at the community meeting. “What goes on in Lakeland ... and Osceola County and Palm Beach County is not the same that goes on in Fort Lauderdale.”

Fort Lauderdale Code Compliance Manager Katrina Johnson Jordan told residents at the meeting that the bill could soon have the city’s hands tied when it comes to short-term rental operators.

“But if they break the rules and ordinances in the cities, we can enforce them currently,” she said. “We need to let the state know that it is important that the municipalities are able to enforce vacation rentals at a local level and not at the state level.”

‘Disruption, disrespect, disregard’

Built in 1968, the home at 1425 NE 57th St. is owned by an LLC of the same name, according to Broward County property records. The one-story, three-bedroom, two-bath house was sold in April 2023 for $855,000 to Cari Cohen, who has an address in Studio City, California. Cohen transferred the property to the LLC that July.

In December, the property received three citations for parking, noise and occupancy violations, according to online vacation rental enforcement records. On Dec. 11, the city gave notice that it intended to suspend the rental license for 180 days; the shooting at the property happened just a few weeks before a hearing on the matter was scheduled.

Neither the property owner nor the property manager responded to a request for comment from the Herald.

Jordan, the city’s code compliance manager, encouraged residents to file complaints about short-term rentals with code enforcement, but some said they were hesitant to do so because their name would be attached to the complaint.

Coral Ridge Isles resident Rich Rosano is not one of them — he said he’s gotten three short-term rental properties shut down on his block by filing code complaints, a feat that’s earned him the nickname “The Landlord.”

Rosano, 53, said that in some cases, his sternness has brought him closer to his neighbors who’ve violated the city’s short-term rental ordinances, though in other cases, he’s gotten angry phone calls and texts. Ultimately, he wants his neighborhood to be safe from large parties that have and could result in violence, he said. Rosano described one incident where an owner showed up an hour-and-a-half after code enforcement and police arrived to address a crowded party at a short-term rental and was knocked out by one of the guests.

Rosano also complained of guests parking on his and other neighbors’ lawns. The Coral Ridge area has 162 vacation rentals, with 91 of them in the Coral Ridge Isles neighborhood, according to the city.

“My kids are here,” Rosano said. “This is for me, this is for my family and for my investment. I chose this neighborhood because it’s wonderful, and I want to bring it back to where it was.”

Fogelman echoed similar sentiments, saying the biggest issue is the parties.

“There’s just a big difference between somebody that’s coming for a three-day vacation, versus somebody that lives in an area,” he said. “People tend to throw their hat off, let their hair down and behave in ways in which they wouldn’t [normally] when they’re away. And so it’s usually disruption, disrespect, disregard, and people going fast and drinking. And that makes us nervous when our children are out playing in the streets.”

Tracy Antol, a longtime resident of the Coral Ridge Isles area, said the neighborhood had long been a safe community but has changed in the past five years with the addition of short-term rental properties.

“For me personally, it’s mostly been noise and parking violations and sometimes trash, and it’s particularly acute during spring break,” she said.

Still, Antol said that while she feels safe in her neighborhood, her neighbors may feel differently.

“I think that there’s just a lot of fear, and people are upset and don’t feel like they’re being heard,” she said.

She, too, urged her neighbors to report things if they see them.

“We can’t address this unless we report it, and you can’t be afraid to put your name on something,” she said. “You need to have the courage to do it.”

Some residents at the community meeting said they had called code enforcement several times about rental properties, including the home where the shooting took place, but claimed in a few cases that code enforcement hadn’t formally documented their complaint. Jordan said she’d speak with her staff about it.

“My directive to the entire code enforcement staff, whether it’s daytime or nighttime, is when we arrive at a vacation rental and we see a violation, it is cited,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if the property manager shows up 30 seconds later, it is a violation when we find it.”

As of now, no arrests have been made in the March 9 shooting of Warren, and a heavily redacted police report reveals few details on what led to the shooting. At a special magistrate hearing March 21, the home at 1425 NE 57th St. had its short-term rental license revoked, with city officials noting that the home had received a citation the night before the shooting for parking, noise and occupancy violations.

“I think you know, I don’t do that lightly because I know people depend on this for income, but this is a case where there are the seven violations and a homicide, and it just can’t be ignored,” said Special Magistrate Rose-Ann Flynn, who presided over the hearing.

An attorney representing the property owner said their client will either use the home as a longer-term rental or sell it. The home is now being advertised on Redfin and Zillow for $7,000 per month.

Under SB 280, cities would still be allowed to revoke short-term rental licenses under certain conditions. Local governments would have to provide notice of the revocation in five days, and owners of the short-term rentals would have 30 days to appeal.

As the state bill looms in the background, residents and officials have taken to a letter-writing campaign detailing their experiences with vacation rentals in Fort Lauderdale, hoping that SB 280 won’t become law.

Fogelman, the neighbor who reported the shooting to 911, said residents will still need to stay vigilant in reporting violations at short-term rental properties.

“I think this battle is going to continue for a while,” Fogelman said.

Investigative reporter fellow Alyssa Johnson contributed to this report.