HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-14-17 Public Comment - M. Brown - Short Term RentalsFrom:Marilee Brown
To:Agenda
Subject:STR ordinace
Date:Monday, August 14, 2017 11:48:10 AM
City staff, Manager, Commissioners and Mr. Mayor,
Thank you for all your hard work. This has not been easy for you to balance everyone’s needs. Now that you are intending on prohibiting/capping Type 3 STR rentals, I believe that
you should consider two amendments to the ordinance.
1. Limit the number of vehicles not the number of bedrooms in the rules on parking. (Sec. 38.22.250 I standards 3. (pg. 2996)) A two bedroom place could potentially have 6 vehicles
show up - one for each person renting (two for each bedroom + two). However, my experience is that most large families show up with only one or two vehicles. I have it in my
posted rules on hosting platforms that they may only have two vehicles if renting my 4 bedroom home.
2. Eliminate the no longer needed City public On-line listing and display of registration
number connecting to that on-line listing on hosting platforms. (Sec. 38.22.250 H Registration 8. & 9. (pg. 2995))
Requiring everyone to allow their personal information and address to be posted on a “online
listing of short term rentals registered with the city, to include the registrant’s name, address and contact information” is dangerous to tourists, homeowners, and the City. And since Type
3 offenders have been capped, it is no longer needed.
Imagine a criminal looking at a listing of hundreds of STR’s and their addresses with the click of a button on a City website and then cross referencing it with hosting platform calendars.
They would instantly know when and where vulnerable tourists with large sums of cash are staying throughout Bozeman. This is actually happening in other tourist cities and is similar to
when rental cars used to identify themselves in the 90’s. Tourists were targeted, robbed, and even killed as a result.
Hosting platforms actually suggest that hosts not publish their addresses (and contact
information) on their websites. This is because thieves have been “soft targeting” tourists at tourist destinations. The requirement of the proposed ordinance to include the Bozeman STR
registration number in all listings overrides this precaution - any potential criminal will be able to “connect the dots” by looking on the City’s database.
The hosting calendars show “availability” and do not distinguish between a tourist residing at
a home or the homeowner residing at the home for particular dates. This means that school children could be home alone when a criminal targets such a home because they think that the
tourist is away seeing the sights.
A better idea would be for such a list to be maintained by the City and then residents willing to identify themselves to staff be given specific information on STR’s in their particular local by
City staff just as any other type of City Business License can be requested now.
Thank you for considering these amendments.
Marilee Brown406-579-5447