ELORA – Centre Wellington council has voted to “get naked” with a proposed short-term rental bylaw, meaning it will strip it down and start over to build a better framework to regulate the industry.
The comical reference came after a long discussion about short-term rentals (STR) at the April 14 council meeting.
Two delegations spoke on the matter, clerk Kerri O’Kane presented the proposed bylaw, and then councillors offered their thoughts on how to improve the bylaw, leading O’Kane to suggest starting over.
“Sometimes starting naked and building it with council might be the better idea here,” O’Kane said.
“Yes, let’s get naked,” quipped councillor Denis Craddock.
But the matter was serious, and council wanted to support short-term rental operators, who fill a tourism need in the community but at the same time maintain quiet, peaceful neighbourhoods for residents.
Key components of the draft bylaw include:
- exemptions from parking requirements and minimum separation distances of 100m in the historic core areas;
- a demerit point system for STRs that breach local bylaws;
- fire, bylaw, building code and septic inspections would be required before obtaining a license;
- requirement for STR owners and their guests to sign a code of conduct agreement;
- establish an appeals committee in cases where the clerk has denied, suspended or revoked a license and the owner wishes to appeal;
- the owner must live within 30 minutes of the STR;
- STRs cannot be rented for parties;
- STR owners and renters must abide by all bylaws, including property standards, clear yards, curbside collection, open air burning, parking, zoning, animal control and the sale and discharge of fireworks;
- maximum occupancy of eight persons in STRs in urban areas; and
- proof of insurance.
Melinda Croft operates an STR outside Elora and delegated to council.
She said adding requirements for septic inspections could make it too costly to continue to operate STRs in rural locations.
Urban STRs would be connected to municipal services and would not have to undergo this testing, she said.
Croft said she agrees there should be a bylaw to regulate STRs, but this one, with so many inspections required, “I fear it will cause loss of revenue (for existing STR owners) because they might not be able to afford the inspections and upgrades.
“They could lose their source of income.”
She also thought the registration process was onerous and called for a simpler one.
And waiving requirements in historic areas “seems to prefer [STRs] in historic areas,” she said.
“Don’t penalize everyone for the few that need to be dealt with.”
Mark Reilly also runs an STR in Elora and he thought the bylaw favoured hotels and would turn people off from running STRs.
“This bylaw makes it unstable and unwelcoming” to potential operators and yet “STRs keep Elora alive and well,” he said to councillors.
Councillor Bronwynne Wilton said the bylaw didn’t address the “missing piece, which is about protecting long-term housing.”
She added all future STRs should be owner-occupied and did not want to see different rules for STRs in historic areas – especially on parking, which is already a problem in downtown Fergus and Elora.
Councillor Jennifer Adams wanted to be sure the bylaw addressed the “bad actors” but did not harm responsible STR operators.
And she wanted to be sure administration and enforcement of the bylaw was fully funded through fees and penalties and not property taxes.
Councillor Kim Jefferson hoped the application process could be made easier for STR operators by offering the process online and enabling applicants to upload insurance and site plan information with their applications.
She also thought the range of penalties – between $250 and $50,000 – was too broad.
Staff have estimated there are about 175 STRs in the township but many operate under the radar.
The idea of the bylaw is for those operators to come forward and be licensed. The bylaw then contemplates setting a cap on STR licenses in the township.
In the end, council voted unanimously to defer the decision and hold a committee of the whole workshop, where councillors can go through the bylaw line by line, make changes and then direct staff to have the re-written bylaw vetted by the township’s lawyer.
