Taming the Wild West

Short term accommodation bylaw to come before council

Director of Community Development and Strategic Initiatives, Neil Carbone, presented the draft licensing, penalties, property standards, fees and charges to a special committee of the whole meeting on Thursday evening

Carbone told council that staff had to find a unique balance for the regulations. “We were seeking to balance the interests of our communities, residents and our neighbourhoods with the desire for economic growth,” said Carbone. “We wanted to stop the unfettered proliferation of STAs that were hollowing out neighbourhoods and reducing housing stock.” Carbone explained that the municipality did not want to stop the proliferation entirely or prevent any further STAs from being introduced. Carbone points to market forces, and says that they will guide the growth, making sure it is happening in appropriate places and allowing appropriate densities.

Susan Wallis, Harold Bratten and Karen Orme provided a deputation, speaking on behalf of the 44 accommodation members of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Prince Edward County, which was formed in March of this year. “Historically, bed and breakfast accomodation have complemented the tourist experience in the County. We met the gap in accommodation not met by motels and inns,” said Wallis. The group believes that traditional bed and breakfasts should be excluded from the bylaw. “Traditional BnBs are not the reason why this legislation was created. It’s not that we’re saying licensing is not necessary. BnBs are simply not the cause of it and shouldn’t have to pay the licensing fees to fund a program to address issues being caused by other STAs.” Wallis also explained that noise and nuisance isn’t created at traditional BnBs as the owners are living on the property, and control their own environment.

Councillor Jamie Forrester agreed with the group’s deputation. “I believe there is a huge difference between BnBs and short term accommodations. We started this to deal with a problem that was out of hand. We’ve never really had any ongoing problems with them,” said Forrester.

Councillor Ernie Margetson asked if it was the cost, or the process that was the primary concern. Wallis explained that they both caused concern, but that it is just not a necessary process. “By lumping us together, you are never going to be able to assess what the cost is to license a nonowner occupied separate from an owner occupied.”

Several audience members spoke in favour of Wallis’s deputation. Suzanne Lafrance, owner of Moonlight on the Lake Bed and Breakfast on Hyuck’s Point Road told council that their bed and breakfast is an important source of income. “Most bed and breakfasts are owned by retired individuals and seniors. It keeps us active, productive and more financially secure,” said Lafrance.

Wellington resident Brian Barber, told council he feels penalized with licensing that links the status of a residence to the property itself and not the property owner. Barber believes it disadvantages homeowners who are not providing rentals but live in an area as he does, that are dense with rentals. “I understand the need to grandfather in existing owners, but their existing status should be lost with the property and not sold as a valuable privilege which goes along with the property in perpetuity,” said Barber. Barber said when he first bought his property, there were 10 homes on the street, none of which were offering accommodation. Since that time, one has been converted to multiple commercial activitiy, and and four of the nine are engaged in shortterm rental accommodation. “This strategy is penalizing residential homeowners who do not want to rent their properties in order to provide economic security and onging benefit to non-resident individuals who are conducting legal non-comforming activities in designated residential areas,” said Barber. “Clearly the residential feel of this part of Wellington has changed significantly over the past decade.”

Councillor Forrester wanted to see BnBs exempt from the bylaw, but he believes they should register in the same time frame, and be susceptible to the same penalties and density levels. “Right from the beginning the BnBs were not a problem,” said Forrester. “The BnBs regulate themselves. They don’t have overcrowding problems.”

Manager of Planning Paul Walsh told council that the licensing bylaw is about trying to create common standards and gain statistics. “We heard of about 44 BnBs tonight, but our statistics suggest that there is probably about 400 of them out there. I think there are a number of quasi-BnBs out there, and the licensing is hopefully going to capture that,” said Walsh.

Councillor Janice Maynard worried that by excluding BnBs, the County would open up a Pandora’s box of other accommodation providers trying to fit into that category. “How do we regulate? What constitutes what is a traditional BnB? Is it a full meal, or an apple and a packaged cookie?” asked Maynard. The councillor also believed that the fees are not onerous. “By having this licence, which will be robust in inspections, many of them can probably forgo the BnB Association fees which are similar.”

Carbone told council that at the beginning, staff identified primary residence STAs and BnBs are different from whole-home STAs. “We acknowledge that wholehome STAs are a larger source of the nuisance issues or a larger source of some of the affordable housing issues, but what we do not agree with is that there is absolutely no issue whatsoever,” said Carbone.

He says that they have had reports and challenges with parking and operating some rentals with more than three rooms, under the radar, which breaks fire code. “Our zoning bylaw has been extremely lax with permissions for BnBs. That was a very positive thing because we had no other sources of accommodations. That allowed that industry to grow and meet a market demand.” But he now feels that the only way to know for certain what the problems are, is to license and track them. “If we do not license one whole segment of STAs, we will not be able to determine how much of our resources we are allocating to those STAs. When we review our program in a year or two, we will be able to say ‘most of our enforcement has been to the following areas, so maybe we should adjust our fees accordingly.’ We will never be able to do that if we do not put in place licensing,” said Carbone.

The next step in the process includes ratification at the June 25 council meeting. Carbone told council that staff are ready and waiting to implement the program. The application window will open later this summer, and the grace period will be extended at least until the end of 2019.

The program will be reviewed at the end of 2020, when staff will reassess the cost of the program, the appropriateness of the fees, the volume of licences and the level of compliance the program is accomplishing.