The planning and development committee in Gibsons is recommending council move forward on a plan for regulating short-term rentals (STR).
In a report presented at the committee’s May 5 meeting, planning staff said creating a regulation framework would require amendments to the zoning bylaws, the business licence bylaws and the bylaws on enforcement.
The report said staff worked with Host Compliance, a company that specializes in helping local governments manage STRs, to get an idea of how many the Town already has.
A point-in-time snapshot identified 131 listings across various platforms like Airbnb, representing 91 short-term rental units.
The Town’s zoning bylaws currently allow for bed and breakfast operations, defined as one to two bedrooms in a home where the person running the B&B is present and accommodation includes at least one parking spot and breakfast.
The proposed definition for short-term rentals would allow them in single-family dwellings, duplexes, and multi-family residential buildings, except apartments, as long as it’s the operator’s principal residence and they are living on site during guest bookings.
The business licence for an STR would cost $200 and to qualify the operator would also have to show they meet safety requirements.
The draft bylaw would also require STR operators to display their business licence, including the operator’s contact information, “in a prominent location on the property.”
Mayor Bill Beamish said he would still like to see a requirement to notify neighbours within 100 metres that an STR is operating in the area, something council had suggested early on.
Director of planning Lesley-Anne Staats said the feedback from public consultations showed that “short-term rental operators didn’t want to share that much information with neighbours.”
Councillors David Croal and Annemarie De Andrade said they also supported the notification idea.
“Whether it’s 100 metres or 50 metres, I think it is important. Are you going to go around at 11 o’clock at night when there’s a noise complaint with a flashlight looking for a business licence posted on a tree?” said Croal
“I understand the owner of the house wants privacy, but it is a business,” De Andrade said.
Clifford Sutton, one of the community members on the committee and an Airbnb host, said as an operator he would be willing to support the proposed bylaw changes and is neutral on the idea of informing neighbours.
“I’ve been running an Airbnb for a while, all of my neighbours know it, it doesn’t really affect me. But that being said, I can see how it’s useful,” he said.
The other community member, Scott Keck, also an Airbnb host, was less supportive, citing the need to protect personal information and the divisiveness of the short-term rental issue.
“I live in a pretty tight-knit neigbourhood and I wouldn’t want to welcome that kind of scrutiny from my neighbours,” said Keck. “That said, anyone can go on the Airbnb website and see all the Airbnbs that are available and get that information pretty easily.”
He suggested that instead the Town put a list of STRs that get businesses licences on its website for people to refer to.
Coun. Aleria Ladwig, who chairs the committee, said she didn’t see the need to notify neighbours of an STR in their area because the operator would be required to remain on the property during a rental.
“I think the whole point of getting to a bylaw where the owner is on site doesn’t make it necessary,” she said. “If [the guests] are being so rowdy that it’s disturbing neighbours from that far away, I would think the person that lives in the house would come and bang on the door long before that would happen.”
In the end the committee voted to follow Keck’s suggestion and recommend the Town make a list of licensed STRs available if the bylaws are adopted.
It also recommended the draft bylaw amendments be sent to legal counsel for review before going to council for first readings.
