Rules greenlighted

Committee of council agrees to OP and Zoning rules to govern STAs

Two out of three ain’t bad. A committee of council agreed, unanimously, to regulations governing short-term accommodations (STAs) under its Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw on Thursday last week. Licensing rules were deemed to be too long a reach—as there remains several logistical, administrative and staffing details to be worked out. Council and Shire Hall agreed, however, that licensing provisions would be in place before the end of March next year.

Director of Community Development Neil Carbone presented council with the latest iteration of the plan, including some late changes to the proposed regulations. He acknowledged that the original plan to approve licensing provisions had likely been too aggressive.

Over the course of the four-hour meeting, 23 deputations were made to the committee. Many of them urged council and County staff to slow down. Others said STAs were displacing families and putting home values out of reach of ordinary residents.

Lorna MacDonald, chair of the Prince Edward Affordable Housing Working Group, draws a direct link to the affordable housing crisis in the County. “It is mystifying to those of us on the Prince Edward Affordable Housing Working Group, how some people are failing to see the link between the proliferation of short-term accommodation and the issue of affordable housing. We cannot afford to have any more of our precious County housing resource turned into short-term rentals,” said MacDonald.

But others noted that the link between STAs and affordability is not all clear.

Glen Wallis and his wife Susan own and operate a bed and breakfast. Together, the couple purchased their Cherry Valley property 18 years ago and converted it into a purpose- built B&B. Wallis doesn’t see the correlation between affordability and STAs.

Councillor Kevin Gale worried about the lack of manpower needed to enforce the new bylaw. Gale asked staff to ensure there is room in the 2019 budget to make sure the bylaw can be enforced. “This is just another situation where we are pitting neighbour against neighbour,” said Gale. “We have three enforcement officers within our bylaw department, and that includes parking. That means three people in enforcement are going to enforce this as well as all the other bylaws.”

Commisioner Robert McAuley reminded Gale that the level of enforcement is entirely in the hands of council. “If council’s desire is having more proactive enforcement on its land use bylaws, then council simply needs to assign the resources, the dollars so that we can hire the people to do it,” said McAuley.

Steve Graham was trying to understand why council needed to make a decision now, and why it could not wait until the licensing portion was complete, and approve it as one package.

Manager of Planning, Paul Walsh, explained that the current proposal was a solid framework upon which to build. “By bringing that in, we will start the clock as to what is grandfathered and what’s not,” said Walsh. “So there is a certain sense of priority to get something in place, even if this is the first major step, and then we do the polishing later.”

McAuley underlined that point, explaining that most STAs in residential and rural areas may not even be legal. “What this puts a full stop to is those that haven’t obtained a permit or currently aren’t acting lawfully. That’s the intent of bringing this forward. There is another aspect of concern around whether these are even allowed, period. And whether they are all illegal, period. There are some municipalities that choose to take the view of you can’t do that. You can’t take a whole house and rent it to two different families for commercial gain. That’s a commercial use. This policy and the zoning puts to bed that question for the County.”

“It puts some structure around what we call these, how we interpret them and how we permit them within residential zones. So, there is some certainty to those that operate, that we are allowing them to operate. We are making them proper. And defining that they are allowed to happen. To not do that will leave all these operators exposed to the legal challenge that you are not lawful today.”

Treat Hull stressed McAuley’s point noting that most current STAs are not an allowable use and the current state wouldn’t exist in the future. Hull also pointed out that these regulations will bring back neighbours and neighbourhoods. “What we get from this is the preservation of neighbours and neighbourhoods in areas where the density is presently too great. Where neighbours are gone in favour of short-term rentals,” said Hull.