Yesterday I posted about a new ordinance being considered in Miami Beach that would ban any party costing more than $100.  Meaning that if you spent $100 on some steaks for your friends your party would be illegal under this ordinance.  That’s what I got from this article which I quoted in the original post.

This morning I got an email from Miami Beach Assistant City Manager Hilda M. Fernandez who is telling me that I’ve gotten some bad information about this law.  The text of her email is as follows:

You have some bad information. The ordinance is NOT about private parties in private houses. It’s about COMMERCIAL parties in private houses. The real neighbors that are upset are the ones that have to live 24/7/365 next to a house made into a 600-person nightclub. The other “residents” that are upset might just be worried that their money train (renting their house out for commercial events) may stop. Don’t worry: BBQ’s large or small with friends that bring your fave bottle of Merlot aren’t at risk...and in fact they never were. Check out the actual ordinance for yourself and you’ll see…

I scanned the Miami Beach city website quickly this morning for a copy of the ordinance but couldn’t find one, so I’ve asked Hilda to forward one along so that we can consider the actual text of this proposed law.

I also included this in my response back to Hilda:

I’m worried that this law is ambiguously worded.  While law enforcement may not use it stop private parties now, what happens in ten years when some smart officer down at the Miami Beach PD figures out he can use the law as it was written to shut down any party he wants?

And while I understand the concern over commercial parties in neighborhoods it seems like there are better ways to go about handling that without walking all over individual property rights.  Don’t you already have laws on the books for domestic disturbances?  If these “600-person nightclubs” are as bad as you say, why not just break the party up every night using that law?  If you stay on them long enough, they’ll either down-size their party to a more reasonable level or give up and go somewhere else.

I’ll keep you all updated as to any responses I get.

Update:I just got another response from Hilda down in Miami Beach:

The news reports are responding to information that was distributed by a non-city source and has misinterpreted the intent, let alone language, of the ordinance. The ordinance speaks to commercial parties in single family homes, not private parties (for personal purposes) in private homes. The ordinance distributed at the meeting further clarified that the $100 refers to payment or consideration to the homeowner for the use of their home (e..g payment to rent the home). The accompanying memorandum clearly described the issue (commercial use of single family homes) and never refers to private parties. In fact, the memo and ordinance both emphasize our residents’ right to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes - including those residents that have been unduly burdened by the impacts of illegal commercial activity in their single family neighborhoods. Private parties occur every day in our great city and they are not shut down. However, commercial events are a different matter - and the only focus of this proposed legislation is that issue. They are already illegal and this ordinance is intended to clarify for our residents what constitutes a commercial activity.

Well that clears thinks up a bit, I suppose.  I’m in the process of downloading the city agenda which apparently has the actual code of the ordinance in it (it’s a 45 meg download that’s taking forever) so we’ll see what the actual text says, but certainly the city can zone strictly commercial ventures.