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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-05-23 Public Comment - B. Allee - STR Regulation ProposalFrom:Bryce Allee To:Agenda Subject:[EXTERNAL]STR Regulation Proposal Date:Friday, October 6, 2023 9:12:12 AM 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. Dear Bozeman City Commission, I would like to voice my opposition to any additional ordinances pertaining to 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 trampling of individual property rights, which we hold in high value in Montana. 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. If further analysis is deemed necessary, the city should also consider the negative impact that this could have on how many of these short term rental units that are being used by those homeowners to create housing affordability in Bozeman for themselves by generating extra income. 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. 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 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. Additionally, the commission should consider any other unforeseen economic impacts to the community. Things like will our travel nurse dependent hospitals be able to maintain critical nursing levels, what will the tourism dollar loss be by pushing tourists outside the city or to other communities, what are the exposures to and costs of potential litigation. The stakeholders for short term rentals will present empirical evidence as to why additional 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, I am 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.