With complaints regarding short-term rental accommodations (STRA) on the rise, Mayor Karin Terziano put a motion before councillors at their Feb. 24 general committee meeting proposing that staff investigate stronger enforcement measures as well as limits on the number of units that can be licensed.
The motion, which was carried by committee, directs staff to bring a report to the next regular council meeting with recommendations for the following:
“-investigating stronger enforcement regulations; including the potential to suspend licenses when complaints are received or for those who don’t comply;
-limiting the total number of units licensed by the municipality;
-adding a limit on the number of units one owner can licence;
-density of Short Term Rental Accommodation properties.”
The Town implemented a short-term rental accommodation licensing program in 2020.
“I feel like [complaints about short-term rental accommodations]are non-stop in my world and I think it’s time to do something about it,” Terziano told councillors. “We developed a bylaw…and now it’s time to tweak it and make it work a little bit better.”
Councillors discussed the need to consider density of STRAs, which could result in a maximum percentage of properties on a lake or within a community that would be permitted to be short-term rental accommodations, as well as a maximum number for the municipality as a whole.
Deputy Mayor Nancy Alcock also raised concerns about absentee STRA owners and the need to distinguish those properties from owners who just rent space in their own home. “I’d love to see the distinction between those who are just renting out rooms in their homes versus those that it’s a business,” she said. “Maybe there are different rules. That’s where I hear more complaints from people.”
Councillor Jason FitzGerald said he’d like to see “enforcement with a little more teeth to it.”
Regarding complaints, Councillor Brian Thompson wanted to know how the legitimacy of complaints is determined.
Director of development services, Kirstin Maxwell, replied that “every complaint is investigated to determine whether or not it would be considered valid or if it’s vexatious amongst neighbours, and if it is a valid complaint the administrative penalty is levied against the property and a strike is laid.” Three valid non-concurrent complaints lodged against a property can result in its licence being revoked. The property could be re-licensed, but only following a review from the Town’s administrative penalty committee.
According to a separate staff report presented at the general committee meeting, to date staff have
received 135 STRA applications. Ninety-three licences have been issued, nine applications
have been denied for not being in compliance with the bylaw or zoning allowances, and the
remainder are still under review. The report acknowledged that some short-term rental accommodation owners may have been reluctant to license their properties last year due to uncertainty about whether or not they would be able to operate during the pandemic.
Staff have been directed to bring a report with recommendations to the next regular council meeting, which is scheduled for March 22, 2021.
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Marsha Rao says
This is so needed. Short term rentals are ruining neighborhoods. It is like living next to a boarding house.
Mike Smith says
I agree 1000%,these AirBnB plopped in the midst of neighborhoods is ruining every day life for the full time residents.Parties go on by ‘renters’ not only during the weekend but also during the week.We all have to get up for work in the morning.Many sleepless nights due to noise.By law needs to have staff on in shifts so the can actually witness what goes on when called. Showing up the next day at the place in question is too late.Trespassing needs to be taken seriously too,people come here and treat surrounding properties like they are parks! Thank you Mayor Terziano and council for addressing the severity of this situation.
Charlene and Jay Neill says
These are hotels in disguise. I did not buy next to a commercal hotel.
People renting feel entitled to have a good time so they are here for a good time not a long time and the neighbours are left to babysit. They think they’re at a resort with no rules. Too many licenses are being doled out.
We never know who our neighbours will be week to week.
It creates tenion in the neighbourhood as well.
Ralph Cliffe says
I will believe it when I see it!
Council will pass the motion and sit back and watch our
gallent OPP officers enforce the laws.
The sooner the better.
Jonathan Baker says
It’s unfortunate to see people upset by short term rentals and wanting them to go away. We live in a tourist town and we all need them to come enjoy muskoka so we can live here year round and enjoy it ourselves. Putting a tax on short term rentals and is a good thing to put some of the money made back into or town But trying to get rid of them or limiting the number of rentals one can have is wrong I think. For many this is a small business and a way to help many families supplement the growing cost of everyday living. We don’t limit the number of coffee shops or restaurants or any other number of businesses in this town. It would be unfortunate to see our counsel put restrictions and handcuff people trying to make a living. Short term rentals are the preferred way to stay by many people and i hope counsel can see this and learn how embrace it rather then regress and take steps back.
Will Moore says
Short Term Rental businesses should and must be regulated.
Legitimate hotel / motel businesses, if you will allow, are regulated and assigned an appropriate tax levy. Why should Short Term Rentals not be subjected to similar regulation and taxation ?
I think neighbors should have some sense of security; as well.
Lodgings are transient but, at least, with the “legitimate “ hotel / motel businesses there is a greater sense of accountability associated to their patrons. Yes, I concede that it is not always the case. However, they are adept at managing unruly patrons.
Short Term Rentals seem to want the “quick money “ but not be held accountable as a business.
ed gruscyk says
zoning sb respected. We bought homes expecting a certain type of usage next to us. We sb trusting our leaders to look after the citizens that they represent.
Holly Kelly says
Last summer was extremely stressful for our neighbourhood due to one Air Bnb. Continuous music(rap), shouting, singing, and partying throughout the summer. The voices and music carry invading our rights for peace. At times we could not have a conversation on our own property due to the noise. Forget a good book or relaxing swim. We complained to deaf ears! One of the neighbours packed up and moved out due to the stress. We are so pleased to know this problem is being discussed but concerned whether regulations will be enforced? We don’t want to be constantly complaining! After working for forty five years we just want to enjoy our neighbours and the beauty of Muskoka.
David O Harrison says
Council already has a ‘three strikes’ policy (valid concurrent complaints) for short term rentals, after which the owners lose their licence to operate. Strict enforcement of this policy should end the noisy/inconsiderate guest complaints.
Perhaps the Council should also consider making Noiseaware detectors mandatory for rental properties. Nothing like having a realtime record of violations. Guests can be informed that noise levels are being monitored and exceeding a specific threshold will result in immediate termination of the booking.
Check out http://www.airbnb.ca/d/partyprevention
Kim Bendall says
Short term rentals in a neighbour hood greatly impact the quality of life of people who live there in large part due to the large number of people who invade the residence. Noise will always be an issue if 12 or 14 or 16 people move into a single family dwelling for a weekend or week. A quick scan of available rentals reveals homes for rent that are for example-5 bedrooms accommodating 14 people, 8 bedrooms for 16 people…. this is not reasonable. The rates of $1000-1600 per night as an example are exorbitant but manageable if several dozen people pitch in 100 bucks. There needs to be an occupancy cap that fits average occupancy of homes in the neighbour hood. Septic systems must be able to manage the toilets, showers, laundry facilities and dishwashers of more than a dozen people on a daily basis over the summer. Many of these units need to run dishwashers at each meal. Many absent landlords have no idea how to manage their septic systems. This needs regulation.
Paul Whillans says
In my opinion, policy responses to things like short term rentals (STR) define the heart and soul of a community. However the treatment of STR has been only transactional since the beginning. Council was asked to even look at STRs only because the town’s “Tourism Entity” (read Deerhurst) wanted the 14% accommodation tax extended to STRs. So in short, regulation of STRs was always only about taxes, not in anyway about cost and benefits to the community.
And yet the impact of STRs on the socioeconomic well-being of their host communities has been incredibly well researched both in Canada and around the world.
What the research has told us is:
a) 96% of STR clientele would have gone to a motel/hotel/resort without the STR option (Guttentag 2016). In short, STRs create very little in new economic activity. But rather STRs steal revenue from existing businesses who have invested heavily in construction and actually hire staff;
b)Through the mechanism of removing housing stock from residential use, STRs artificially increase the cost of housing. Using the formula found by Mercante and Horn (2016) and replicated by Zervas, Prosperio and Byer (2017), we can estimate that in Huntsville in 2019 house prices were $93,000 higher than they would have been without STRS.
c) Similarly, through the same mechanism, STRs increase the cost of rents in their host community. Using formula found by (Mercante and Horn (2016); Barron, Kung and Prosperio (2018); Sheppard and Udell (2018); Fairbnb (2019) and Wachsmuth et al (2019), we can estimate that Huntsville’s STRs have artificially increased rents by $147 a month in 2019.
In short, STR take economic activity from existing business (which have invested heavily in the community and support local jobs) and funnel into the pockets of precious few individuals (in Huntsville, a significant number of STR owners do not live and have not ever lived in Huntsville). In exchange for this, residents in Huntsville pay significantly higher costs for housing.
It should be noted that the original regulatory proposal was built on a vacuous piece of “staff” fluff (which many over achieving Grade 12 students would have been embarrassed to submit….personal opinion). But all the foregoing research summary was submitted to each and every councillor and to the Planning Department prior to their vote. ……”crickets”
It would be easy to dismiss all this as simply the “shading” of a single resident (me) but I would note that in the past 3 years, communities representing 58% of Ontario’s population have voted to ban third party STRs (i.e. short term rentals not in a principle residence). These are the most egregious STRs as these are the units that are being removed from the housing stock and these are the units that are most often the “party house” with no supervision. Communities representing another 7% of Ontario’s population have similar proposed bans before council. Huntsville is clearly behind the curve on this one.
In defining who Huntsville is, council needs to take a serious look this time around at the known socioeconomic impacts of STRs. And if they do so, these will shut down all third party STRs.
Sequoia Henry says
Here is a grand idea… no more short term rentals? We have hotels and motels for a reason.
Perhaps the people on council that have short term rentals/ air b n b should be disclosed and the fact that opinions are bias regarding their own subliminal motives
We all need to play a part not just the locals that actually invest and support Huntsville ..
Sham Dowar says
This is the first year for short term rental licensing we haven’t even gone through a full season and have all these complaints, have council thought out that some local will just be a nuisance and call and report things for the sake of it so that the town will revoke someones license what council should do is have a-bylaw officer go to the property of complaint and catch the perpetrator in the act and then issue a strike three strike and your out. their should be some type of regulation on this type of behavior I have a neighbor two cottage over who has an issue when we cook, celebrate Canada day were not allowed to have fire works even enjoying our self is an issue but its not when his crowd is doing construction on weekends, dog running around without a leash on my property trespassing cutting illegal path through my property. short term rental bring in a lot of revenue to the town of Huntsville this is what grows communities council should put this matter on hold due to pandemic so that short term owner can voice their concerns. Regardless of the matter locals have an issue with seasonal cottagers and don’t want them there it’s like in the 1930’s where jewish vacationers were unwanted in Muskoka.
Judi Mills says
I did not buy a house in a commercially zoned neighbourhood or beside a hotel..or so I thought. Short term rentals should not be allowed in residential subdivisions period. Until or if that ever happens realtors should have to inform buyers of any of these operating near them.
Gwen Norkus says
Why are we allowing bad behaviour (under aged drinking/large party groups/loud music/alcohol and boating/dogs running at large/parking issues/litter) at Short Term Rentals when these same behaviours are not tolerated in hotels/resorts/provincial parks? It is the neighbours that have to police and call in authorities – that is not fair.
Michael O'Mara says
What happens when hotels,motels ,bars,parks and other establishments have people that disobey laws ? They will call the O.P.P. The town of Huntsville has excellent O.P.P. officers who are there to up hold the law and are very good at defusing any situation that may occur. There are fines in place for all these occurrences. Just a thought. Michael O’Mara