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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Vacation Rental Proposal Unveiled

By Dan Boyd
Journal Staff Writer
    Santa Fe city councilors may be approaching a compromise on an issue that's vexed them for years.
    City Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger unveiled a series of amendments to a proposed short-term rental law Tuesday that could allow councilors to finally move forward on the idea of regulating the industry. Current city law doesn't allow short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, but the law has gone unenforced.
    Wurzburger, who was joined at Tuesday's press conference by Councilor Chris Calvert, said she believes councilors will be able to take action on the issue at their Jan. 30 council meeting. She hinted that she's been in discussion with many colleagues in recent days. The council has repeatedly postponed a final vote on the proposed new law.
    "I believe there is consensus," Wurzburger said, but admitted she didn't have the five votes needed to secure passage of the amended ordinance definitively locked up. And she described the amended product as "not an ideal bill."
    But "I do believe this is the best I can do," she said.
    Under the terms of Wurzburger's proposal, the number of vacation rental units would be capped at 350, though existing rental units could be operated indefinitely provided ownership doesn't change hands.
    If the number of rental units dipped below 350, a lottery would be held to determine which new operators could come on board. People who operate multiple units would have to pay a permit fee of $1,000 for the first unit and $250 for each additional one.
    City councilors have been struggling for more than a year to come up with a way to regulate short-term rentals. Though having such rentals in residential areas has been illegal for years, lack of enforcement has allowed the industry to boom.
    While estimates of the total number of illegal short-term rental units vary widely, most agree there are between 200 and 1,000 such units in the city's neighborhoods.
    Business leaders in the city largely support the industry, but the practice of renting houses in residential areas to tourists has irked some locals who believe it ruins the traditional character of neighborhoods.
    Previous proposals to resolve the issue have included limiting the times an operator can rent a unit and phasing out such rentals gradually, over a five-year period.
    That's the approach still favored by Mayor David Coss, who said earlier this week, "the status quo isn't acceptable anymore."
    "I'm very sold on grandfathering, a tested legal method of eliminating land uses that are not consistent with the zoning of the city," said Coss, who left Tuesday to attend a conference in Washington D.C.
    When asked about the mayor's view, Wurzburger said the two had agreed to disagree.
    "I have never been in favor of a grandfathering approach that decides, without the necessary information, (that) short-term vacation rentals in Santa Fe are over," she said.
    Wurzburger also criticized comments made Monday at an election forum by Councilor Patti Bushee, who said the city still wasn't ready to address the issue and described current attempts to do so as "political solutions to a zoning problem."
    If the amendments are approved, many new restrictions will be placed on short-term rental operators.
    Residents would be able to rent out their own homes twice per year, and residents would be allowed to lease guesthouses on their property as many times as they want, provided they pay for a $500 permit and have no more than one guest party per week.
    Units already being leased for short periods that don't fall under either description could be rented out 17 times per year.
    Wurzburger said that with the permit fees, the city would be able to hire two full-time staff members to enforce the new ordinance.
    After an 18-month period, councilors would review information gathered on the ordinance's effectiveness and the state of the short-term vacation rental industry and decide whether changes were needed.