Page 8 - Flathead Beacon // 10.5.16

CITY BEAT 14 COUNTY BEAT 14 COURT BEAT 15 Newsworthy
With In ux of Vacation Rentals, Cities Grapple with New
Concerns and Challenges
Increasing number of property owners joining the short-term rental market
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
In the growing tourist destination of the Flathead Valley, visitors have a long list of lodging options, includ- ing more than 325 new hotel rooms built this past year. And now, with the expansion of e-commerce, there are also hundreds of private residences — and even bed- rooms — available for vacation stays.
Through online booking platforms such as VRBO and Airbnb, property owners can join the business of accom- modating visitors through short-term rentals, which is forcing municipal governments to grapple with the chal- lenges that accompany this exploding market.
According to VRBO’s online registry, there were more than 670 private lodging rentals in the White sh area as of late September, ranging from luxurious homes for $300 a night to a two-bedroom cabin in the woods for $191 or a condo on Big Mountain at $98.
In Columbia Falls, there were more than 300 short- term rentals, and Kalispell had nearly 40, according to research by city o cials.
While VRBO lists full-sized homes for rent, the web- site Airbnb includes individual bedrooms that are avail- able, and in White sh there were more than 300 list- ings, many of which o ered a private room for roughly $50 to $60 a night, depending on the season.
But, according to city and county o cials, many local short-term rentals are either technically illegal or breaking several rules, whether they are occurring in prohibited neighborhoods or they are not following safety and business protocols. Concerns have also been raised about the potential negative impacts to residen- tial neighborhoods and the long-term rental market.
Kalispell and White sh prohibit properties from being rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days in most traditional residential neighborhoods. Properties in Flathead County are also not allowed to rent nightly stays in most areas with single-family housing.
The Kalispell City Council has held nearly a dozen meetings over the last year discussing how to handle vacation rentals amid opposition from some residents.
More than 350 residents in the Village Greens neigh- borhood signed a petition opposed to short-term rentals in their area. Fred Zavodny submitted the petition to the council on Sept. 12, saying the transient nature of short-term rentals creates instability in the neighbor- hood and hurts property values.
“Are they good or are they bad?” Kalispell Planning Director Tom Jentz said. “The council thinks they’re probably good with proper standards, but what are those standards and should they go everywhere or only in cer- tain neighborhoods?”
In Columbia Falls, the city council crafted special provisions in 2012 when rentals began popping up in greater numbers across town. Rentals are still limited to certain commercial-residential zones, and property owners must ll out an administrative permit that out- lines the rules of renting. Those include inspections by the re marshal and health department, as well as
Neighborhoods on the north end of Kalispell. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
a business license and a state public accommodation license. The application also requires a local contact who can respond to a complaint or emergency.
In White sh, short-term rentals can only occur in commercial and “resort” zoning districts, which includes the Railway District and some neighborhoods around White sh Lake. Properties eligible for vacation rentals are also required to have a short-term rental permit with emergency contact information and park- ing requirements, as well as a business license, which includes an annual fee ranging from $30 to $100 depend- ing on the size of the property. Properties must also pay the town’s 3 percent resort tax and gain approval from the re marshal.
As the number of rentals has spiked in recent years, enforcing these regulations has proven burdensome.
“We check the vacation rental websites on a regular basis,” White sh City Manager Chuck Stearns said. “I do enforcement for collection of resort taxes, and the Planning and Building Department does enforcement if they are operating a short-term vacation rental in a zoning district that doesn’t allow them.”
He continued, “It is a challenge because the vaca- tion rental sites don’t list addresses and sometimes the maps aren’t exact, so we have to be able to identify prop- erties by the pictures. It can take some time to iden- tify them, get the property owner’s address from the County GIS website, write a letter, and then follow up
with veri cation.”
It is unclear what percentage of short-term rentals
are breaking the city ordinance, but the presence is cer- tainly growing.
“People are building a lot of second-story condos spe- ci cally for short-term rentals,” White sh Planning Director Dave Taylor said. “It’s de nitely a new trend in the downtown commercial district.”
One concern that reverberates in White sh involves a ordable housing and long-term rental options.
“(Short-term rentals) do drive up housing costs, and the (month-by-month) rental market becomes more and more di cult,” Taylor said. “It’s important to pro- tect the integrity of the traditional neighborhoods and maintain the housing stock.”
Mark Mussman, the Flathead County Planning Director, said his o ce received nearly a dozen calls this summer with reports of illegal short-term rentals, which are investigated and then noti ed if con rmed.
“There are a lot of unpermitted rentals in the county,” he said. “We’ll contact the owner and typically they say, ‘We didn’t know we can’t do this.’ And then they ask, ‘Why can’t we?’”
Mussman said he hopes the county considers revising its ordinance similar to how Columbia Falls and White- sh are tackling the issue.
“It’s a conversation the county should have,” he said.
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
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OCTOBER 5, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM