Editor:
The District of Sechelt is finally drafting updated bylaws to regulate short term rental accommodations (STRs). We will soon be invited, yet again, to “have our say” but are the mayor and councillors paying attention?
Clusters of unsupervised STRs, each hosting up to 12 guests for an unlimited number of nights are currently the reality in some neighbourhoods. Late-night parties are not the only issue. When daytime noises are persistent at close proximity, they also adversely affect our quality of life. What incentive is there for unsupervised guests to be respectful with their volume, garbage, water usage... when they are here for a good time, not a long time?
Sechelt needs STR regulations with teeth. Making onsite ownership a requirement, limiting the number of guests per unit plus capping and spacing the number of STRs in the district would be responsible and proactive measures that would require very little reactive enforcement.
Eighty per cent of the respondents to a Coast Reporter poll (July, 2020) supported a requirement that STR hosts live on-site. The same question on a public engagement survey (December, 2020) yielded a similar result. On May 5, 2021 a letter from some of the most respected housing advocacy leaders on the Coast was presented to Sechelt Council. One of its main requests was a ban on STRs operated without the owner/manager present.
Council members recently identified STR “neighbourhood fit” and “protecting the long-term housing market” as their top priorities, yet follow-up proposals seem geared toward keeping unsupervised STRs in business. Approving commercial STRs means residents will still have these de facto hotels in their midst. This is unacceptable and given the current housing crisis, it is also unconscionable.
Continue to “Have your say, Sechelt” and perhaps together our concerns will be heard!
Nancy Smith, Sechelt
