Airbnb rentals in Colorado Springs: Regulations coming?

[Vision67]

https://gazette.com/opinion/airbnbs-...b0d039cdc.html

"There are now four full-time Airbnb businesses on my block.

I sit on my front porch, enjoying an early autumn afternoon. It’s a small block. Downtown. Old homes. Mine was built in 1914. A classic. Downtown’s in walking distance. Four years ago, there were no Airbnbs on this block. Now there are four — full time, nonowner-occupied. They are inhabited by strangers … or nobody.

My neighbor to the north is a single mother with children. On the corner is a house whose owners live in Missouri part time. My south neighbor lives with his girlfriend two blocks away; empty full time. Next is a rental duplex in constant turnover. The next three houses are occupied by full-time owners: three young bachelors; a single elderly man; and a duplex with a mother and son. Next to them is a very, very large behemoth of a house, shoe-horned into a much too small empty plot several years ago. It is modern, cheap, garish, and stands apart from our older homes. It is an Airbnb. No owner occupant; just strangers … or nobody.

Moving across the street, there’s a woman with her adult son. Next to her is another Airbnb. No owner occupant; just strangers or nobody. It was bought by a couple from California this year. They lived in it for three months before departing (haven’t seen ’em since). Next a single woman. Next to her and directly across from my front porch, another Airbnb … two actually. A house in front and a two-bedroom apartment above a three-car garage at the rear of the property. No owner occupant; just strangers or nobody.

Across the street, a single man in his small home, once a mother-in-law house to his neighbor house to the north which sits for sale. Given housing prices, I am concerned that it is cheaper for somebody to buy it as an Airbnb. Seems to be way this block goes.

Let’s do the math: 14 houses, four full-time Airbnbs. Add 2 essentially vacant houses and you get just under 50% of the houses here without full-time owners/residents. I have not met one a single one of the owners of the Airbnbs.

I have watched it transform the neighborhood from my porch: Lots of strangers coming and going, their cars (and their guests’ cars). It means lost community. Strangers attract watchful eyes and resent it. Yes, I recognize a good guest might be better than a bad neighbor. However, consistent occupants aren’t strangers: strangers pass through, don’t wave, don’t interact, don’t have concern for neighbors, for lawns, trash, lost pets. They stay briefly and leave. Empty houses attract attention from preying eyes.

I get the gig economy. It has great benefits but they are economic only. It benefits owners I’ve never met, who live elsewhere. They don’t invest in neighborhoods; their money doesn’t help my block. Sadly, maybe that’s really who Americans are now: gig-strangers.

Can we please stop with this nonsense that Airbnbs are private residences? These four in my neighborhood are businesses — plain and simple. They need to be taxed. Their owners need to be required to make face-to-face contact with all adjoining neighbors for accountability, as potentially uncomfortable as that may be. They should want feedback from the neighbors on a semiannual basis and requests/directions need to be included in the property guidelines they leave for their guests. They need to leave contact information (and, no, not the police, as a recent letter opined). The City STR Czar also needs this information, accountability for off-site owners who know how stretched city budgets and time are.

The bottom line: even if owners don’t live here, they are a part of the neighborhood. Neighborhoods are more than money. Wouldn’t a good business understand that?

Note: A town hall meeting on short-term rentals is scheduled at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at City Hall (107 N. Nevada Ave.). The City Council will discuss short-term rentals and is encouraging public comment at its regular meeting Oct. 22.

Chip MacEnulty is a Colorado Springs native. He is a high school teacher in his 22nd year of teaching."

[Vision67]

https://www.csindy.com/TheWire/archi...al-regulations

"City Council will consider four options for regulating short-term rentals on Dec. 10.

Options A, B and C define an “owner-occupied” short-term rental, or STR, as occupied by the owner for at least 180 days each year. Option D increases the minimum for “owner-occupied” to 210 days.

All of the ordinance options require non-owner-occupied STRs to be spaced at least five lots apart in any direction.

Options B and D ban non-owner-occupied STRs in single-family zones, while option C requires that applications for non-owner-occupied units within single-family zones be reviewed by the Planning Commission.

Council will solicit public feedback on the four options Dec. 10.

Meanwhile, short-term rentals marketed through one online platform are already bringing in the big bucks.

Colorado Springs Airbnb hosts earned $1.4 million over six Air Force Academy football home game weekends this season, according to Airbnb booking data. "

A non-owner-occupied STR is a hotel room; a commercial business.

My non-enforced HOA prohibits commercial businesses in a residential neighborhood.

How about your neighborhood?

[LHS79]

Briargate had an HOA when it was first started- I'm in Fairfax and have been since 1986 (lucky enough to own two houses, one is a rental).

I miss the HOA- it was dissolved when the development changed hands in the early '90's and it kept all of the neighborhoods looking good. People could not buy a house and then not maintain it because they could barely afford the mortgage. Now you see that all over Briargate- even in the "nicer" subdivisions.

People don't buy a home to live next to a Motel 6.

[TCHP]

Eventually, Briargate will become the Village Seven of the north side. Both were upscale in their roll out, both were highly desirable at a point in time, both attracted upper middle class at modest price points, both had/have access to higher performing schools.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by TCHP

Eventually, Briargate will become the Village Seven of the north side. Both were upscale in their roll out, both were highly desirable at a point in time, both attracted upper middle class at modest price points, both had/have access to higher performing schools.

I agree- V7 was an awesome place back when I was looking at houses in '86- my realtor said "Hey- you should really look at this new place called Briargate" but it was WAY up north (in the middle of nowhere!) from where I wanted to be.

At the time I still wanted to be near central C/S but took her advice and it worked out pretty well.

That was when new 3BR/2BA houses in Briargate were $67K or so- a lot of money back then.

With newer subdivisions now north of Briargate we will be the next "average" development.

[otowi]

Way back when in the late 60s/early 70s the developments around Mitchell High School were all the rage, and in the late 50s early 60s it was the Wasson area - almost every place, when it was new, had its day in the sun.

[TCHP]

True, as the city has expanded, the newest cool places to live has always changed with the growth.

[Vision67]

Colorado Springs City Council approves more rules for short-term rentals

https://gazette.com/news/colorado-sp...c74a70b4d.html

A divided Colorado Springs City Council voted Thursday to impose new regulations on short-term rentals that owners say generate additional income and more tourist dollars, but also have caused friction with their neighbors.

The council voted 5-4 to approve the new provisions, adding to a set of rules that the council passed last fall to regulate rooms and homes rented out through online platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO, or Vacation Rentals By Owner.

Under the new rules, a rental that a property owner inhabits for less than 185 days annually will be considered “nonowner occupied.” Rentals classified as such will not be allowed in single-family residential or single-family planned unit development zoning districts. In other zoning districts, nonowner occupied units will have to be separated by 500-foot buffers.

Owners of already permitted short-term rentals will be “grandfathered in” and won’t be subject to the new rules as long as they renew their permits annually before the expiration date, city planning officials said.

Councilman David Geislinger and other council members who supported the new rules stressed the need to proactively strengthen the city’s regulations to prevent negative impacts on neighborhoods.

“We need to take a step forward. We cannot kick the can down the road,” Geislinger said.

The short-term rental industry also takes up units that the city “desperately” needs to address its housing crisis, said Councilwoman Yolanda Avila, who supported the changes.

Council members Jill Gaebler, Richard Skorman, Andy Pico and Wayne Williams cast the “no” votes.

Pico said the additional rules infringed on the rights of private property owners, and Skorman called the regulations “too restrictive.”

The decision followed a few hours of testimony from more than two dozen people, many of whom were short-term rental owners opposed to the new rules.

Airbnb and VRBO owners touted the economic benefits of the short-term rental industry, from the owners who rely on income from the rentals to the money that tourists spend in the city while staying in them.

Having units in single-family residential zones allows visitors “to come to Colorado Springs and live like a local,” said Kilian Gordon, who works for a short-term rental property management company.

But others said short-term rentals that aren’t owner-inhabited disturb neighborhoods with high turnover rates.

Joan Markley, who lives near several short-term rentals, said the properties bring “strangers” to the area, creating issues with traffic and safety.

“As long-term homeowners, we have rights, too,” Markley told the council.

Last year, the council passed two ordinances that defined short-term rentals, applied city regulations to them and charged property owners $119 a year for a permit.

Since then, the city has issued nearly 1,300 permits. Roughly 200 of those permits are held by people who have rentals in single-family residential zoning districts and don’t occupy those properties, according to city data.

The city has confirmed 75 violations at short-term rentals, 56 of which were for rentals without permits. The other infractions were related to issues such as traffic, parking, noise and weeds or other blight, city data shows.

“What are we trying to protect our neighborhoods from?” Gaebler questioned before the vote. “We seem to be demonizing people who just want to earn some revenue.”

Other cities in Colorado and beyond have instituted requirements for short-term rentals related to density and owner-occupancy. Manitou Springs requires that the units be separated by at least 500 feet. Denver requires that a rental be a property owner’s primary residence.

Colorado Springs’ new rules, slated to take effect before the end of the year, must still be passed on second reading by the council this month.

The regulations include an exception allowing active-duty service members who are ordered to report to a temporary duty station outside El Paso County the ability to rent out their homes for a year.

Someone who wishes to establish a nonowner occupied unit in a zoning district where it’s not permitted may also apply for a use variance. A public hearing would then be held, and the planning commission would approve the variance request if certain criteria were met, according to city planning officials.

The council also recently approved a law that limits maximum overnight occupancy of each short-term rental unit to two occupants per bedroom, plus an additional two occupants per dwelling unit. Under that law, the maximum occupancy per dwelling unit is 15 occupants.