Well known Highland’s realtor Pat Allen recently wrote a column in the Highlands Newspaper on the issue of short-term rentals. Unfortunately, on several important facts, Ms. Allen is just wrong. STR’s are a crucial issue that threaten the character of Highlands and future livability of our town. Facts matter as the Town moves to establish clarity on this issue.
The facts are:
- The Dog Mountain Property Owners Association has never sued the Town as she claimed. Ironically, although she seems to express regret that there is litigation surrounding this issue, publicly available information reflects that Ms. Allen contributed $900 to the STR group that is in fact suing the Town, so she is helping to fund the very lawsuit that she is concerned about.
- In fact, 100 per cent of the homeowners on Dog Mountain petitioned the town in 2012 (many years before the explosion of short-term rentals in Highlands) to be annexed into the Town, willingly accepting the extra tax burden. Why? We wanted the protections of the current zoning laws for R-1 that explicitly prohibits all commercial activity, including “overnight accommodations”.
- Ms. Allen also erroneously says that the Town’s board of commissioners voted to ban “all short-term rentals in R-1…”
They did not. The commission by consensus simply agreed to enforce the existing zoning laws, which prohibit short-term rentals in R-1 and R-3 zoning districts and require special use permits (which also includes a number of restrictions that protect the neighbors and neighborhoods) in R-2 zoning districts.
- Ms. Allen erroneously says the homes in R-1 “would no longer be allowed to be offered as rentals.” That isn’t true either.
The fact is long term rentals are allowed in R-1 under the current zoning law. The town attorney Jay Coward in the council’s August 2021 meeting confirmed that the ordinance prohibits STR’s in R-1. Homeowners who need rental income to offset their purchase, can still rent, they just can’t do so on a short-term basis like a hotel.
- Ms. Allen and others have suggested that regulations should be put in place to govern short-term renters with fines and screening. Who would enforce these rules? Not the STR owners. They live elsewhere and don’t know in real time about violations. No, under this idea, it falls on neighbors to report the violations, making homeowners who invested in R-1 who want to live without commercial activity the “monitors” that police STR’s. That’s not fair. There should be (and always has been) a residential zone in Highlands for homeowners who do not want to live next to a revolving door of renters.
- Ms. Allen asks “how (can) we continue to have weddings or short-term events…. if we don’t have enough rooms to rent.” Our question is “Why should residential homeowners be asked to sacrifice their neighborhoods for the destination wedding industry and the Chamber of Commerce? If the need for hotel rooms is so great in Highlands, we are confident that smart business investors will build more rooms where zoning rules allow such development.
- Carol Gable
Vice President – Dog Mountain Property Owners Association