Businesses cooperating — or not — with new license requirements in Holiday Island have morphed into their own distinct categories.
That’s what Holiday Island Mayor Dan Kees told members of the city council at the council’s regular meeting held Tuesday, March 18, during his update on code enforcement efforts.
“I tried to break [business licensing] down into groups,” Kees said, adding that five categories have emerged as far as compliance.
“We have a group — it’s a small group, but we have a small group of people who are trying to comply and we’re going to continue to work with them,” Kees told council members. “Then, we have a group that’s working on complying but severely dragging their feet. Again, I think that’s a pretty short list, and they’ll probably be getting a cease-and-desist letter.”
Then there’s a group of businesses that had licenses in 2024, but have not applied for a 2025 renewal yet, the mayor said.
“That’s probably, about eight to 10 on that list,” Kees said. “Some of them may just not be in business anymore, I don’t know. But, we’re going to have to follow up and find out what’s going on with them. They may get a cease-and-desist letter if they’re still in business.”
A fourth group of businesses never applied for a license in 2024, the mayor added.
“Again, I don’t think that is a terribly long list,” he said. “Some of them, again, may not actually be real businesses. Some of them we know for sure are real businesses, and for those that we know are real businesses that have just been blowing us off, they will get a cease-and-desist letter.”
A fourth group isn’t a group, but a pair of businesses working on the same properties, Kees said.
“The last one is not a group, it’s one businesses, Holiday Partners, LLC,” he said. “Table Rock Landing is actually two businesses working with the same buildings. You’ve got Table Rock Landing, which does renting and stuff like that and maintains all the property. And then you have Holiday Partners, LLC, that also owns all of the unsold units, and rent some of those out as short-term rentals, and they’ve basically just been ignoring us.
“Kelly Roberts at Table Rock Landing has been working with us. They’ve just got a lot of maintenance issues … so we’re having trouble getting through the fire inspections. But, at least you know they’re cooperating with us. … Holiday Partners, they’re just ignoring us.”
Holiday Island adopted Ordinance 2024-014 last year. The ordinance puts fees in place to obtain a business license, timelines to do so, and inspection requirements as part of a Conditional Use Permit. The city is researching what penalty avenues are available for businesses that don’t obtain a license, Kees said.
Cease-and-desist letters can be sent, and have been, but citations and other legal means are being researched through the city’s attorney, the mayor added.
“We’re working on it,” he said. “… “We did put in there about a $500 fine, but with some of our other ordinances, we actually say that failure to comply with this ordinance is a Class A misdemeanor. And so you end up in court. But we didn’t say that in our business license ordinance. We just said $500 fine. So I don’t know if that is going to be enforceable in district court or not. So I have those questions out there.”
The council also heard updates on the trash ordinance code enforcement efforts, distressed properties across the city and animal control ordinance updates.
The council approved the third reading, by title only, and enacted an emergency clause on Ordinance 2025001 amending the planning and zoning regulations in the city and establishing minimum square footage of residential structures.
Also approved on a third reading by title only was Ordinance 2024-015, which updates the building code, primarily in regard to rules for manufactured homes in the city. The new ordinance will go into effect in 30 days.
In another approval, the council approved spending $3,125 for half the cost of sealing, coating and re-striping the parking lot where city offices are located at 5 Forest Park Drive.
