Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-08-23 Public Comment - L. Maples - STRFrom:Luke Maples To:Agenda Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment STR Date:Tuesday, August 8, 2023 11:19:22 AM Attachments:image001.png image002.png CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Madam Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, and Commissioners: I would like to encourage the city to press pause on re-working the existing rules on STR’s in our community. First, I would like to point out that 2023 has already been a tough year for tourism-based businesses coming off the boom that COVID had created for travel in Montana. Visits to Yellowstone National Park are down 13% and we are seeing about the same in gross rents. I’ve heard individual owners report their rents are down as much as 30%. There is a lot of useful data in the report prepared for the Cityof Bozeman, but we need post COVID data to make truly informed decisions. Secondly there has been a lot of false misinformation circulating in our community about STR’s. At one point this spring the tenant’s group was going door to door with flyers listing my employer (Mountain Home Vacation Rentals) as a greedy investorholding mass amounts of properties. We reached out to them correcting this statement and explained that our job is to manage properties. While they stopped naming my employer in their materials, they have continued to promote the idea that greedy out of state investors are entering the Bozeman STR market in mass. I would like to point out that the report issued to the city went as far as to pull assessed values of registered STR’s in the community. I would encourage them to pull the ownership data and see how many individuals or entities own multiple homes as STR’s. If the Tenants Union is going to make that claim it needs to be based onsome type of factual data. To be clear, I’m not against someone owning multiple homes for investment. I just haven’t seen that it is happening in our community! There has been a lot of misinformation about the actual number of rentals in our community. It appears the city has been double counting as most STR’s are listed onboth Airbnb, VRBO, and additional hosting platforms. Magically the morning after the affirmative obligation ordinance was passed the city had done an audit and changed the reported number from over 900 units to just 533 units. Another misleading concept is that the city calls Type-3 a short-term rental that is notowner-occupied. It creates the idea that these are strictly a tool for investment. The reality is that Type-3 is typically owner-occupied but for shorter durations of time. A owner may just use the home for two months in the winter, two months in the summer etc. The idea that these homes will convert in mass to long term rentals is entirelyuntrue. None of the owners that I represent will be converting to long-term rentals. Keep in mind I speak with these people weekly and daily. The city will just be taking property rights, killing jobs, taking bed tax dollars away from the state, and limiting lodging opportunities for visitors to our community. Finally, I talk to tourists who travel to Bozeman and surrounding areas daily, 365 days a year. I can confidentially say that there is a very very very very very very very small percentage who would stay in alternate lodging outside STR’s in Bozeman. In the event you ban any STRs. The benefit STR’s serve economically to the community isabundant and you all are about to decimate local businesses, jobs, state tax, overall property care, and the desire to travel to Bozeman. As an employee of a property management/booking company within the vacation rental sector throughout SW Montana. I beg you to reconsider the current vision/solution you all are seeking. Whiletenants united has given valid emotional testimony. This will only increase and will be coming from the unemployed, unhoused, property owners, and previous business owners that were once within the STR industry. I WANT TO KEEP MY JOB! I LOVE MY JOB. Luke Maples Mountain Home Montana Vacation Rentals Phone: 406.586.4589 1102 W Babcock Street, Bozeman, Montana 59715 luke@mountain-home.com www.mountain-home.comCar rentals available! Call with any questions.