Georgian Bluffs is moving towards implementing a short-term rentals licensing system next year.
Township council approved a recommendation at a recent committee meeting to direct staff to develop a bylaw by April 2024 to regulate short-term accommodations, which would include a licensing regime.
Georgian Bluffs interim CAO Niall Lobley told councillors some preliminary plans for what the bylaw could include. He mentioned a $500 licence fee for principal residence operators of short-term rentals, and $750 for non-owner occupied units. The township would limit the amount of registered STRs per person to two. Those who operate an STR without a licence could face fines. And there would some sort of occupancy limits drawn up, but that’s still being worked out.
He also says noise is “one of the big problems” of short-term rentals and mentions a requirement for licensed operators to have noise-monitoring devices installed that would sent alerts to property owners if there is a certain threshold reached.
“We would not have access to any data, unless the owner/operator provided it for us,” Lobley says. “It’s not like … it would be providing us an update. It’s a piece of detection equipment between the property owner and who they give access to. They would get those alerts, we would not.”
Lobley says Georgian Bluffs has around 75-85 STRs operating year-round, and up to 130 during the peak summer tourist season. In a report, he says there are “significant community concerns” over the loss of “community identity and feeling” and other issues with STRs such as noise and parking.
Nearly 70 per cent of respondents to a township survey felt STRs should be limited to homeowners in their primary residences in Georgian Bluffs.
But, he says “despite significant political and public attention” staff have not found problems to be overwhelming and in fact they’ve been managed through use of “existing tools.”
Georgian Bluffs Mayor Sue Carleton shared a question from a resident: “Why is the township recommending these additional fees and licensing on short-term accommodations when the data in the report clearly shows that short-term accommodations in the township are not a concern or a problem?”
Lobley acknowledged the township really “didn’t find a problem” with STRs through all the proactive work it did in 2023, and even “went looking for problems and didn’t find them.”
“We are recommending taking action, almost contrary to the evidence we’ve found,” the interim CAO says.
Lobley talked about “politics playing a large part” with action on short-term accommodations happening in many municipalities in Ontario. And he says the township has also had strong community feedback.
“In some ways it doesn’t matter if there is a problem or isn’t a problem,” Lobley explains. “If there’s a perceived problem, there’s a problem. The reality here is there might not be a problem that needs to be fixed right now, but community believes there is a problem that needs to be fixed right now.”
Lobley told councillors staff are working to have a short-term licensing bylaw ready early next year, so things could be implemented by the summer tourist season. The township is expecting STR licensing will generate around $35,000 to $40,000 in annual revenue, and be cost-neutral within three years.
Georgian Bluffs staff are not recommending a municipal accommodation tax.