HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-11-16, Kirkland, Vaction Homes Public Comment
Dear Community,
We would like to comment on the Community's consideration of restrictions on
short term rentals.
We own a vacation home in the Cooper Park Community. When we aren't using it, we try to find short term renters to use the house.
There have been concerns expressed about the negative effects that short term rentals have on the community.
We would like to point out some of the positive effects. We love Bozeman and we would have purchased this home with or without the ability
to have short term rentals. However, without short term rentals, the house would
be "dark" many months of the year since it is our vacation home and we are not able to use it frequently.
Having the home “dark” less often decreases the possibility of vandalism, which would affect both us and our neighbors.
By having short term rentals, the home is occupied and not "dark" over much more of the year. Short term rental of our home is not cheap, and we think that the renters we have are more likely to be more respectful of the community and the
home than an average renter.
Due to the income we generate from the home, we are able to spend more money to
care for the yard and exterior than we would spend if we didn't have that income.
Also, due to the fact that we want the home to be attractive to prospective renters, we take better care of the home and property than we would otherwise.
While it is true that short term renters don't pay property taxes, we do. Short term renters do pay 7% Montana bed taxes. And while we contribute to the schools
through taxes, neither us nor the short term renters add to the population of the
public schools. We feel that short term renters probably contribute more to the stores and
restaurants of Bozeman than an average community member since they are on vacation and they are out and about a larger percentage of their time.
Our renters walk through the neighborhood, walk through town, and visit the
parks, all contributing to the community feel.
We do feel that the application process for conditional use permits is quite
onerous. We would like to be "more legal," but we were informed by our lawyer that the total cost for applying for a permit that would only be good for one year would be approximately $10,000 including the surveyor's fee, architect's
fee, and 89 point checklist for code violations, as well as the lawyer’s fee.
Since there are many steps in the application process that requires someone to be present and since we live out of state a majority of time, this requires us to
pay for representation to be present. We would like to see the process simplified
and streamlined.
Thank you for your consideration.
Johnny & Susan