HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-10-23 Public Comment - D. Seymour - Bozeman City Commission STR LetterFrom:Darryl Seymour
To:Agenda; Cyndy Andrus; Terry Cunningham; Christopher Coburn; Jennifer Madgic; I-Ho Pomeroy
Cc:"kelly@kellyseymour.com"
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Bozeman City Commission STR Letter
Date:Tuesday, August 8, 2023 12:10:45 PM
Attachments:Bozeman City Commission Short Term Rental.pdf
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Bozeman City Commission,
Please see below and attached our letter of concern in removing Short Term Rentals from the city.
We are not in favor of removal and feel STR's are a vital part of our community and support to many
local businesses and proprietors.
Dear Bozeman City Commission,
We would like to voice our opposition to any the proposed ban on short term rentals in the
city of Bozeman.
To add additional, and more complete bans on what a person can do with their property
without appropriate information or data supporting the efficacy of such a ban, is nothing
more than a violation of individual property rights. It seems absolutely unfounded to make
such a unilateral decision when you don’t have all the facts. One main concern is that
this is being considered and added on to an agenda based on a group organized by
tenants in our community rather than all of us who are property owners, supportingthe real estate market, paying taxes and contributing to the positive growth of our
community.
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 even 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. There is no evidence anywhere that shows that taking away short
term rentals would bring more homes to market at a below market price or below market
rent to create more housing affordability in Bozeman. Property values, rents etc. are all set
by market rates and those all continue to climb in Bozeman. To believe that rents would
be less with increasing values, labor costs and tax increases appears to be an incorrect
assumption.
If further analysis is deemed necessary, the city should also consider the negative impact
that this could have on the how many these short term rental units that are being used by
those homeowners to create housing affordability in Bozeman for themselves by
generating extra income.
Our personal story is very important for you to hear (is hear the right word?) in order for
you to evaluate the entire big picture. We are two very hard working individuals; we are
full time working parents. We have one biological son with special needs and 2 adoptive
sons. We bought this downtown condo with the specific need to make it a short term
rental. Our long term plan has been to have an additional income stream so that if
anything ever happened to us, our younger son would be able to have additional income
to help care for his brother with special needs as he will never be able to live on his own.
If you take that away from us; you will be taking away a vital need we have for our sons.
This is our property right that we truly need and value. We have worked hard for every
penny we have earned and we have poured every penny back in to our community
through personal donations, many hours of our time and giving of ourselves to the non-
profit organizations that have been so important to this community. Being a part of the
Bozeman community has been an integral part of our family; this is why we work so hard
to be a part of it.
The commission should also consider the great number of individuals who manage, clean,
maintain and otherwise care for short term rentals, and the loss of wages for them. In
2022 we personally paid approximately $6,300 in annual cleaning fees to a local cleaning
company, we pay $ $1,200 annually to our property manager, we pay property taxes of
$2,112.63 but those taxes will be increasing to $ $3500, we have paid out $3,600 in
occupancy taxes, and lastly we have done everything asked of us in order to make sure
we have all the appropriately licensing and fire protection necessary to make our condo
safe for guests. We have received nothing but 5 stars for every single stay which makes it
nice for Bozeman as every guest states they can’t wait to come back to Bozeman again!
The fact that our condo is located in downtown Bozeman is also a huge benefit as all of
our guests constantly utilize the downtown businesses and their money is funneled into
the downtown restaurants, shops and services which help to keep our downtown vital.
Many of our guests are visiting their college students and tell us that without our condo;
they would not be able to find a place to stay as the hotels are often booked or too
expensive during certain seasons and they can’t “live” like they usually do at home in a
hotel room like they do in a short term rental. Many travelers prefer STRs these days as
opposed to hotels for the earlier reasons stated and as a result our local businesses
benefit from the added travelers in our community and the $ spend at local businesses
during their stay..
Often this type of work is an additional job or supplemental source of income so that they
can afford to live in our community. The commission should not trade one person’s rightto 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.
Additionally, the commission should consider any other unforeseen economic impacts to
the community. Traveling nurses have been an unforeseen expense and addition to ourcommunity as two of the nursing homes have closed in recent years and the hospital has
had more employee turnover in the last several years. We need STRs to meet the needs
of the traveling nurses. STRs make it more affordable for Gallatin Rest Home to employ
traveling nurses. If our travel nurse dependent facilities not able to maintain criticalnursing levels, what will the tourism dollar loss be by pushing tourists outside the city or to
other communities for health care? What are the exposures to and costs of potential
litigation?
The stakeholders for short term rentals will present empirical evidence as to whyadditional laws and regulations against short term rentals should be a non-starter, but I
would like you to know that as a member of this community, We are not in favor of new
short term rental ordinances, or using Bozeman’s time and resources in pursuing research
as to whether or not this is a good idea, when it should seem clear that it is not.
Thank you for listening,
Darryl & Kelly Seymour