Glenwood Springs City Council did not take any action on the ongoing vacation rental debate Thursday night.
“It’s silly. Why are we doing this?” asked Glenwood resident Luis Del Rio during the meeting, at which council was expected to make a decision on proposed new rules and regulations governing short-term rentals. “Are we an HOA now … Is Glenwood an HOA?”
Last November, City Council imposed a four-month moratorium on new vacation rental permits in order to allow time to come up with the new rules. That moratorium ended on March 14.
At its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, councilors had a resolution and an ordinance before them, with recommendations from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
The recommended new rules and regulations would include:
• An initial application fee of $300, and $150 renewal every other year — instead of the current one-time $110 fee.
• A building inspection at the time of application and for each renewal.
• Discretion by the city’s community development director to revoke a vacation rental permit without a hearing process.
• A reduction in the percentage of vacation rentals in single-owner, multifamily buildings to 10 percent, as well as a cap on the number of short-term rentals to 10 percent of the city’s total housing stock.
• No more than one short-term rental permit for every block face, or for every 500 linear feet if block face measurements are not applicable.
• A fine of $250 for first-time offenders, and no less than $100 and no more than $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
However, none of those rules or regulations were voted on Thursday. Instead, council will pick the conversation back up at its June 27 meeting.
Crunched on time following a lengthy public comment period, councilors thought it was best to hold off on any vote until the later meeting.
“I’ve been sitting up here for four years now, having a robust conversation about short-term rentals,” Councilman Steve Davis said, drawing laughter from those in attendance. “That debate has been going on over and over…”
Saying that he certainly appreciated everyone’s comments over the years, Davis added that the council was going to have to do more “soul searching” and have a much longer conversation about the issue.