Comment
Rules
The trick was to discourage speculators without inflicting undue pain upon the folks renting out a room or two as a means of eking out a living in Prince Edward County. Short-term accommodations (STAs) have blossomed with the emergence of sharing services including Airbnb, VRBO and others. It’s a phenomenon that isn’t unique to the County, but has featured some challenges that are more acutely felt here.
As accommodations for visitors have flourished in existing homes, it has simultaneously displaced the folks who once lived here. Neighbours have been replaced by transient strangers without a stake in our community. While Airbnb was conceived as an opportunity to offer a spare bedroom in your home, it is now as likely that an entire home is consumed by short-term guests— particularly in the busy summer months.
It is a problem made worse by the lack of housing stock and a growing demand to live here. With few new homes being built— every home that becomes an Airbnb facility means fewer actual residents.
In this way it is a symptom of a larger problem—as this columnist has pointed to out so vigorously on many occasions before. Yet, lacking concrete progress in getting new homebuilding started, and an election just over a month away, the municipality and its elected officials were compelled to look at stemming the uncontrolled growth of shortterm accommodations.
The County unveiled its plan at a community meeting in Wellington on Monday evening. There were many anxious voices. On one side, were those who fear their villages and neighbourhoods being hollowed out for the sake of visitors and little benefit to the community. On the other were those who say that this is what they must do in order to afford to live in Prince Edward County. There were others, led by some council members, and eager to generate direct revenue from this growing sector, who failed or refused to comprehend the purpose and role of regulations.
Broadly speaking, Shire Hall appears to have rather ably threaded this needle. It puts STA operators under a common regulatory framework—one in which everyone knows the rules and understands the consequences of failing to comply. It also aims to staunch the proliferation of STAs where they are already in abundance, and—in time—begin to reduce the concentration.
The regulatory framework seeks to enact rules that put hard limits on how many folks can be stuffed into a home, and how many STAs may exist on a street, neighbourhood or rural road. It will establish and enforce minimum standards around issues such as insurance, emergency access, parking and such. And a big one—STA licences will be extinguished upon the sale of the home. As such they will be non-transferable.
Marshalling STAs under a municipal licensing regime will end the Wild West era that exists currently in which anyone with a computer and a spare bedroom can be in the Airbnb business. Licensing fees will go to a fund to enforce standards of operation, while stiff fines will ensure every STA operates within a set of rules written in this community— respectful of neighbours and the folks who live here.
Limits will ensure that the “sleeps 14” are weaned out of this community. Only four bedrooms will be allowed, with a maximum of two people per bedroom, and one car per bedroom. That puts a cap of eight people per home. There will also be hard limits on the number of STAs permitted on a street, in a neighbourhood or rural road. Where there are already too many vacation rentals, no new licences will be granted.
Minimum licensing standards will ensure that STAs are safe, have adequate insurance, emergency vehicle access, sufficient waterworks services. Others standards are geared to ensure the STA isn’t a nuisance to surrounding neighbours. These will govern matters of responsible behaviour, noise and garbage.
A regime of fines and demerit points leading to the suspension of the STA licence will serve to encourage responsible ownership and operation.
The licence belongs to the property owner and will die upon the sale of the property. This is meant to provide the municipality with the tools to, over time, begin to ratchet down the number of STAs in a neighbourhood or community. Where there are already too many such facilities, no licence will be granted. In time, home prices should tend to revert to values closer to intrinsic value rather than their earning potential.
The municipality has worked to balance the rights of those who have been operating their STA in good faith, as a means of affording the high cost of living in the County, with those who have endured the loss of community and neighbours, as well as businesses that endure a dwindling residential population.
Will it solve the County’s broken housing market? No, but it just may begin to treat one of its more irksome symptoms.
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