Thread by @BradyStrachan

Standing room only for public hearing on Kelowna short term rentals regulations. City is looking to finalize its rules for this. Lots of public interest and I imagine many people here will be affected by how this plays out.

Staff going through the bylaw and draft regulations. Basically short term rentals allowed in a home owner’s principal residence. Some areas (Sunset drive, around the hospital, McKinley Landing, and some other condos) allowed STR in properties that are not a primary residence

This would mean a ban on STR in carriage houses, secondary suites and investment properties, except in those neighbourhoods mentioned above. People could rent out their entire home though, if they go away on holiday for example. But they must live there 8+ months of the year.

Staff say the goal is to keep a healthy rental stock in Kelowna. Vacancy rate is at 1.9% as of last fall. Ideally 3-5% vacancy rate is healthy.

Here is the how the business licensing would work and compared with other cities.

Opening it up to public comments now. As for sorrespondabce. 61 letters oppose the bylaw and 44 letters support the bylaw.

1st speaker is man with a young child that everyone is fawning over as he approaches the mic. He’s been doing AirBnB rentals in his basement suite at his home near the hospital for several years. His home doesn’t fall in the zone where this would be allowed. He hopes to continue.

Long line of people who are going to speak to council. Probably 3 dozen people raised their hands when mayor asked how many people will speak tonight.

Next speaker would like city to allow limited STRs in secondary suites, carriage houses and investment properties when people are not renting the suites to students. The crowd gathered applauds!

Next speaker says draft rules are over-regulation. Says we are building a ‘Trumpian wall’ around this community, with the vacency tax and now AirBnB restrictions. (He also congratulated Charlie Hodge for coming back to council from his health concerns - this too gets applause)

Next speaker is building a home with a secondary suite. She needs to keep it open for relatives coming to visit and says it’s disappointing council is being so restrictive on being able to do STRs in them. Says it will drive young professionals from Kelowna.

It’s clear majority of audience is in favour of loosening up the regulations to allow secondary suites / carriage houses rented on Airbnb. Every time a speaker says something along those lines, there is a large round of applause. (Despite the mayor asking ppl not to clap)

Next speaker, also campaigning for secondary suites / carriage houses to be Airbnb’d. He says residential tenancy act makes it hard for home owners to get rid of bad tenants. Also concerned about renters growing marijuana in his suites. Clearly frustrated with the proposed rules

Next speaker says the business licence fee of $750 a year (for non primary residence) is far too high. He has 3 suites he rents to students and AirBnB for 2 months a year. He’d have to pay $2250 a year in business licensing.

Nex speaker is - surprise, surprise - wanting to rent his secondary suite on AirBnB as he’s been doing for past 2.5 years. He suggests the city ‘grandfather’ him and others in. Councillor Gail Given quickly asks how that would work, considering it’s currently illegal.

And it continues....
This speaker would like Kelowna to consider a model like Nelson where short term rentals would be allowed if the property is rented out 8 months of the year long term. So renting to students part of the year and AirBnB the rest of the time.

Next guys introduces himself as Paul Davies, Gibson Road, ‘Straight outta Rutland’ (which @joshreports will particularly enjoy)
He’s a statistics guy. Says 170 complaints for 1700 AirBnB suites operating 60 rentals each a year, means complaints are statistically insignificant.

We are on a break. A lot of speakers yet to come.

And we’re back.

A common theme tonight is that people have problems with renters and then can’t easily have them evicted. AirBnB allows them to the flexibility and security of controlling who goes into their suite. Lots of renter bashing going. (So far no renters have got up to speak.)

Next speaker is questioning how tight the rental market is. (Staff said it’s 1.9%) He says he found more than 400 suites available right now in online listings. And a lot more units are coming online soon. He too wants secondary suites allowed to AirBnB.

Next speaker is from Coast Capri hotel. He supports proposed rules. Says he has many employees who can’t find places to live. Says AirBnB has cut into availability of rental housing stock. Also AirBnB rentals will impact hotel business and says the playing filed isn’t levelled.

Another speaker from the hotel industry. He makes the point the original reason Kelowna allowed carriage homes / sedondary suites was for renters. Also says that people are complaining that they want AirBnB to ‘make ends meet’ but the hotel industry needs to make ends meet too

(He is for the draft regulations btw)

ANOTHER PERSON APPROVING REGULATIONS. - Woman is complaining about a AirBnB house in her neighbourhood where the owner rents it out to parties of 20 people. Says there is a lot of noise and RCMP have been called many times. She says it’s ruining her neighbourhood.

More home owners asking council to allow AirBnB in their secondary suites. And one woman who cleans AirBnB suites in the summer is worried she will lose work if these draft bylaws are approved.

Now someone is reading a letter from the BCGEU that thinks the draft rules need to be more restrictive and shouldn’t allow any short term rentals in suites that are not primary residences. (Some condos, homes around the hospital, McKinley Landling etc this’ll be allowed)

Finished up with all the public comments. Mayor and council asking staff some questions now. What are other municipalities doing? A: Vancouver / Victoria don't allow any AirBnBs in secondary suites / carriage homes unless it's someone's primary residency.

Public hearing is now finished. One a break before council debates the bylaw. This could be a long night...

We're back.
Charlie Hodge starts off. He thinks the regulations as they are proposed are too restrictive. He wants to allow AirBnB in secondary suites / carriage houses as long as the owner lived on the property or had someone to manage on the property.

He says....and I'll have to trust his numbers as I wasn't taking a tally... 54 people spoke tonight and 50 of them want less restrictive rules around AirBnB that would allow secondary suites and carriage houses to be rented short term. So he's voting NO to the bylaw.

Councillor Loyal Wooldridge now speaking. He too thinks secondary suites should be able to be rented on AirBnB.

Brad Sieben said he expected a more balance of opinion tonight...renters, or businesses agreeing with the restrictions on AirBnB, but he didn't hear that. He also adds (as did the other councillors) that the residential tenancy act needs to be adjusted to protect property owners.

Sieben says he too wants a closer look at carriage houses and suites being opened up to AirBnB

Councillor Gail Given isn't happy that some people said staff were 'being disingenuous' in coming up with the draft regulations..

She says she's had her mind changed. She's being swayed to thinking secondary suites could be an option for AirBnB. She's open to hearing more about adding them back into the mix.

She says she has heard from a lot of people who don't like it when their neighbours run AirBnBs...challenges around that...but those people didn't come out today.

Councillor Luke Stack, who is celebrating his birthday today, is talking now.

He thinks there needs to be licensing and regulation. But HE TOO has been swayed that it is very helpful to people being able to rent out their secondary suites short term.

But wonders if they can move forward with the regulations, but look at adding the secondary suites / carriage houses into the mix

Ryan Donn up now.
We need regulations. But these are too strict.
He's open to trying to get regulations, but loosening up the restrictions. Over to the Mayor..

Colin Basran says he's heard from many low to moderate income earners who say they can't find a place to live, and that he has struggled with seeing people who have homes and extra suites renting them out to out-of-towners.

Says the arguments put forward by the homeowners tonight have impacted him. He recommended to pass what is proposed and then have staff bring forward recommendations to bring in secondary suites.

Mayor and councillors asking staff clerk on the path forward. Mr. Fleming says you can't just adjust the bylaw to add secondary suites to it. But they could ask staff to bring forward another motion to include them.

Staff says sometime in April they could have those changes done, and it would be back to a public hearing.

VOTE: City council has just passed the short term rental regulations as staff recommended. BUT a secondary motion has been put in to ask staff to look into recommendations to ALLOW secondary suites and carriage houses to be able to be AirBnB'd.

And that...at least for me....is a wrap! (Mayor and Council are still going over some items on the agenda not related to short term rentals.)