Editor:
Kudos to Kim Darwin and David Reed for their information on short-term rentals at the Sechelt May 5 council meeting (“Housing groups, agencies unite to call for Coast-wide short-term rental regulations,” May 14).
Please do not allow another summer of short-term rentals go by without bylaws that help protect Sechelt residents
Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley, Tofino, Kelowna, and many other B.C. municipal councils have already done studies, taken surveys, and implemented short-term rental bylaws to protect their communities and neighborhoods. The District of Sechelt needs to do the same.
Doing so will help make the necessary space for long-term rentals and ensure that our community continues to grow and thrive.
Suggestions?
• Limit the maximum number of dwellings on a lot that may be occupied by a short-term rental use to one.
• Limit the maximum number of guests in a short-term rental at any time to six.
• Limit the maximum bedrooms in the unit to be rented to three.
• Allow short-term rental use only if the permanent resident is residing on the premises at the time the short-term rental use is occurring.
• If the short-term rental unit is in a commercially zoned area, a licensed property-management company could be permitted, provided the short-term rental use complies with all other provisions of the bylaw, including the presence of a permanent resident on the lot.
• Enforce fines against owners for all infractions of the short-term rental bylaws and all other bylaws.
• Have a clause on all short-term rental permits that states, “The District of Sechelt has the right to revoke this permit if all municipal bylaws are not followed.”
How will Sechelt enforce the bylaws?
• Hire full-time short-term rental bylaw officers and pay them with the money collected from the licensing fees.
As David Reed said, “It’s now time to act.”
John Keller, Sechelt
