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By Liam Verster

Impacts to Tourism

‘It’s going to hammer tourism’: Vernon council concerned about impacts of short-term rental legislation

Oct 24, 2023 | 11:45 AM

The proposed provincial legislation regulating short-term rentals has not gone over well with Vernon city council.

At the regular meeting Monday, Oct. 23, Coun. Brian Quiring expressed concern with the legislation to limit properties being used as short-term rentals in the hopes of opening up more housing for long-term renters, and how it would affect the local tourism sector and existing municipal policies and regulations.

“We have a C10A (Tourist Commercial and Residential) zone on the lake, and not just on the lake, but we invested a lot of time and energy into a lake front development plan, this completely flies in the face of it,” Quiring told council, noting there are places like the Strand, the Outback and Vita where people own units, use them for a part of the year and rent them out over the summer months to tourists.

“We don’t have any hotels on the lake in Vernon. This is how people come and recreate in Vernon. It’s going to absolutely hammer tourism.”

He added Silver Star was not included on the exemption list for the provincial legislation, and while it may be added later, that community as well as the other neighbourhoods and buildings he pointed to earlier would not qualify as “attainable housing,” which the province intended to free up with the new policy.

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“Silver Star, in the winter, for somebody that needs attainable housing isn’t an option. The Outback is really no different. It’s a 30-minute drive down a [bad] road, it’s not close to any schools, it’s not really attainable housing. It’s tourism accommodation really,” Quiring said.

Quiring said the province should have held consultations with municipalities, including the City of Vernon, and worked collaboratively on regulating short-term rentals that fit the needs of the communities.

“They can’t just do a blanket legislation without some kind of collaboration with us because it’s going to kill our tourism industry because that’s where people stay, that’s where people stay in the summer if they can because it’s on the lake.”

Quiring added Vernon is a “resort area” with recreation as a primary economic driver, and there needs to be some collaboration to establish ways of still allowing the tourism industry to operate with short-term rentals outside of basement suites or carriage houses, as per the legislation.

He added the real attainable housing in Vernon are basement suites and carriage houses, so by limiting short-term rentals to those types of dwellings would actually hurt people more in Vernon than allowing houses on the lake to be rented out.

Administration advised council that city staff were reviewing the legislation and identifying what bylaws would need to be amended to comply with the provincial policies, but that would still take weeks, or even months.

Quiring said more needs to be done than just aligning municipal policies with the provincial regulations, and instead suggested a letter be written to request collaborative work between the province and municipality around short-term rentals.

Councillor Teresa Durning agreed the legislation would “be detrimental to tourism” and that the province appeared to “paint everyone with one brush, and that’s a concern. And I would like it looked at, and I would like us to have a voice at the table, which we did not have for this decision by the province.”

Councillor Kari Gares acknowledged that staff would need time to fully review and understand the impacts of the legislation, but agreed that council should express their concerns with the province, especially because there is a lack of hotels with suites in Vernon, and that travelling nurses and tradespeople use short-term rentals while working in Vernon.

Mayor Victor Cumming added a “single brush [approach] in a community like ours has a number of unintended consequences” and that the province should be made aware of the issues immediately.

Quiring put forward a motion to have Cumming write a letter expressing council’s concerns and request the province work collaboratively with the city to work out specifics on allowing short-term rentals to maintain the economic benefits of the tourism industry.

The motion passed unanimously.

During the meeting, city administration also noted the province is expected to introduce more housing policy legislation in the coming weeks involving a number of topics from density to four-, five- and six-plexes, and parking regulations. They suggested council take proactive steps to reach out to the province and advocate for collaborative work with the City of Vernon surrounding these topics before legislation is introduced.

However, Cumming said “a more robust look” into those topics should be brought forward at the next council meeting for discussion rather than moving forward without any background information at Monday’s meeting.