Thank you to those of you who gave me a heads up on this. The planning commission ordinance change on vacation rentals will be at City Council this Monday. at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to speak I would recommend arriving a little early. Please let me know if you will be willing to be there to speak out against yet more housing stock being taken off the market. 

 

A few key points: 

• Bottom line, this takes housing off the market when we need it at all levels. This isn't just about one income level. It takes away expensive, affordable and mid-range units.
• Current vacation rentals include units that could be affordable efficiencies in West Duluth and homes that are in the $120,000-$150,000 range that would be good to keep families in the area. 
• While people vacationing out their place for a couple weeks or months wouldn't take housing out of the market, there is no differentiation between cases like that and cases of investors buying up housing stock to use exclusively for tourists. We need communities for families over investors.

 

"The vacation rental cap will immediately go from 60 to 100. The cap will go up each year by either 10% or 10% of the number of new housing units created that year, whichever is lower. (In practice, this means that it will probably go up by 10 every year.) It will continue to go up annually until it reaches a new maximum of 175.

 

Currently, home share permits (for which there is no cap) can only be used to rent out space to visitors in your own residence. (The classic AirBnB thing.) The proposed ordinance would change that so if you own a duplex and live in one unit you can convert the other unit into a short-term rental under a home share permit without getting a vacation rental permit. There would be no limit to the number of such units"

 

Hope this is helpful and THANK YOU for being partners in keeping our affordable housing in the community. Looking forward to seeing you all in a little over a week. 

 

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