HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-20-23 Public Comment - A. Kociolek - ATTENTION COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD_ SHORT TERM RENTALSFrom:Angela Kociolek
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]ATTENTION COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD: SHORT TERM RENTALS
Date:Wednesday, September 20, 2023 10:33:13 AM
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Dear Community Development Advisory Board,
I understand your opinion is being sought regarding Short Term Rentals (STRs). I’m
taking this time to write because we absolutely need to keep Short Term Rental
opportunities because they are an essential income diversification tool for regular
people living in Bozeman.
I watched with great interest the City Commission’s August 8, 2023 STR work
session. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it. It changed my view of
Bozeman Tenants United and left me confused as to why their leadership is pitting
tenants against homeowners when we all want the same thing - affordable housing.
I was left deeply concerned and fearful that a ban or a cap on Type 2 STRs would
limit someone like me from being able to live in my home and grow old in Bozeman.
My husband and I were fortunate enough to buy our 1,200 sq ft home in 2001, at the
age of 31, when prices were reasonable. Good financial decisions allowed us to make
a down payment, get rid of PMI, and refinance for better interest rates twice. Our
home is the smallest on the block. It, and the land it sits on, represents our largestasset.
We made the decision to pay off early and just when we started to celebrate not
having to pay a mortgage, our taxes increased by 33%, our insurance went up, andthere seems to be an endless stream of additional school bonds, tax assessments,
etc. etc. Soon, with these cost-of-living increases, we’ll be paying close to what we
had been paying when we still had a mortgage.
My husband and I are self-employed. We don’t have a safety net beyond life
insurance policies until our son reaches adulthood, IRAs, and our own savings. We
have no great inheritances on the horizon, no family estate to bank on. We will need
to make it on our own.
The option of building an ADU in our backyard and/or renovating our basement to
become short- or long-term rentals is one of the hopes I’ve held on to. According to
the Short Term Rentals Map (2017) accessed via bozeman.maps.arcgis.com, our
home allows for Type 1 or Type 2 STRs. Now I’m hearing that we might lose this
right.
If the Commission bans or caps Type 2 STRs (as they are currently defined) you mayactually increase the risk of homelessness and unaffordability for people like us.
I ask you to please take the following reasonable actions:
1. Keep Type 1 and Type 2 STRs.
2. Consider changing Type 1 to include ADUs.
3. Do not raise the cost of STR registration by more than 10%.
4. Do offer autorenewal so licenses do not lapse unintentionally.
5. Require an STR license, fire code inspection and all necessary listings to be
sure no entity is taking advantage of the system.
6. Enforce all rules – with penalties, if necessary.
7. Accept AirBNB’s assistance.
8. Assist Bozeman Tenants United (BTU) in addressing their main complaints
about mold, spiders, flooding, lack of heat, etc. through other legal means
pertaining to landlord laws. [Do not buy into BTU’s scapegoating of local STR
owners for their substandard housing choices. Local STR owners are also
trying to make a living in Bozeman.]
9. Educate BTU leaders that third floor apartments are the new reality in
Bozeman given it’s higher density/build up, not out model.
10. Focus your energy on real causes of the lack of affordable housing. Limit
ostentatious luxury condos (50% larger than our home) like the forthcoming
‘Hotel Bozeman and Residences’ and space-hogging downtown hotels like
the AC Hotel where whenever I walk by, the first floor is empty. This misuse of
prime real estate is astounding in a City that clamours we need more
affordable housing.
11. Please heed the advice of the HRDC representative and preserve the
affordable housing fund. Do not use it for the one-time incentive subsidy BTU
is demanding. Such a subsidy is a ludicrous idea that would cost us tax
payers (regular home owners like us), again! But if you do it, be sure to vet
your recipients well and require a contract that they will actually live here full-time for a period of ten years or more.
12. Please think of tenants and primary homeowners as equally deserving of a
break. Spend your time regulating developers that seem to have no care for
existing conditions and neighborhoods.
Living here on North Tracy Avenue, I fear for my family’s future in Bozeman. The
ominous march of gentrification making its way northward has got me asking how
much would I sell out for? This makes me so sad. I fell in love with Bozeman in1995 when I came to MSU’s Graduate Program in Conservation Biology. It’s been
home ever since and where I choose to raise my son, serve my community and,
hopefully, live out my days. But my future feels so unstable because I am afraid
we won’t be able to afford to live here.
Please ask the City Commission to not take away our private property right to
leverage our equity. Please recommend they allow us to diversify our retirement
cashflow with a potential rental income. Please be part of the solution to keepType 1 and 2 STRs and advise they enforce the program so no bad actors can
take advantage of the system.
Thank you for listening,
Angie Kociolek
620 N Tracy Ave.
Bozeman, MT 59715