HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-08-23 Public Comment - A. Kaufman - Ban on Bozeman STRs from an Owner of an STRFrom:Allison Kaufman
To:Agenda; Jennifer Madgic; I-Ho Pomeroy; Cyndy Andrus; Terry Cunningham; Christopher Coburn; Ari Kaufman
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Ban on Bozeman STRs from an Owner of an STR
Date:Tuesday, August 8, 2023 9:44:13 AM
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Hello and we appreciate your willingness to receive comments on the topic of banning or
restricting STRs in Bozeman. We would like to voice our opposition to any additional
ordinances pertaining to short term rentals in the city of Bozeman.
My husband purchased our home in Bozeman in 2007 and this property is our only home. We
completed the 6-step process to get our STR license approved in November 2022. My husbandand I went through the correct process, didn't deceive or circumvent the regulations, yet it
seems we are being punished. More complete bans on what we can do with our property
without appropriate information or data supporting the efficacy of such a ban, is nothing more
than a trampling of our property rights, which we hold in high value in Montana.
For the last 10 months, we have employed a local property management company, a localcleaning company, a local site services company (snow removal and lawn maintenance), a
local handyman, and a local plumber through renting our home in the STR fashion. Often this
type of work is an additional job or supplemental source of income so that they can afford to
live. The commission should not trade one person’s right to work hard and invest
responsibility to be able to afford to live in our community, for another person’s ‘entitlement’
to receive something from those people.
Our STR has allowed my husband and I to take care of my 87-year old grandmother's homeduring the winter months, and also be only 45-minutes away from my failing father due to
Parkinsons. (The drive to my father would be 5.5 hours from Bozeman and he's already beenhospitalized for a month.) We have taken lower paying, hourly jobs in smaller towns to
provide this assistance to my family in their twilight years. Currently, we both have jobs thatpay less than $20 per hour in the small communities in which they live. For the other 6 months
of the year, we live in our truck bed camper while continuing to work these jobs. At this time,
we have no timeframe on the need for our support with family. The city should consider the
negative impact a ban could have on the number of short term rental units that are being
used by those homeowners to create housing/living affordability for themselves by generating
extra income.
If the ban were to go into effect, we would be forced to consider selling the home vs. the
impacts of long term rental. Until the commission has a quantifiable understanding on
whether or not this type of ban can have a meaningful effect on housing affordability, this ban
should not be on the table or up for consideration. This should include understanding how
many units would likely be returned to long-term rental, and if that will have any notable
impact on rental rates across our city.
While we have compassion for the challenges of affordable housing in Bozeman, completelybanning the short term rental market would negatively impact those of us who lived and
worked in the Bozeman area for 20+ years. We are not the mucky mucks from large cities thatbought second/third/fourth homes in Bozeman to capitalize on the STR market, we are normal
folks, making sacrifices, and living off the rental income to have the flexibility to support ouraging family members.
Thank you for your time,
Ari & Allison Kaufman