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SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. -- The growth in our Colorado is not only staying in the Denver Metro area. Over the past several years, Summit County has seen rapid growth in vacation rental homes. Now county leaders want more regulations and new fees on how rental homes operate.
Thousands of short-term rental homes in unincorporated Summit County could face new regulations and hundreds of dollars in rental fees.
“Those would be regulations and fees on top of what we are already paying and already administering ourselves,” said George Rosel, a property owner on Copper Mountain. “They are really unnecessary for a lot of areas that are already doing that themselves and paying for that themselves such as Copper as well as Keystone. I think this has a huge economic impact on the county.”
Summit County Planning Director Don Reimer issued the statement below on the proposed short-term rental regulations:
“Over the past several years, the short-term vacation rental industry has grown very rapidly – to an extent that our existing regulations simply aren’t adequate to deal with the impacts to our community. Here in Summit County, and in communities across the country, we have seen an explosion of commercial lodging activity taking place in our residential neighborhoods because of online platforms like AirBnB and VRBO. Our community members have let us know, loud and clear, that issues like trash, parking and noise are getting out of hand, and it’s time for us to enact common-sense regulations to safeguard the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”
The new rental fee to home owners would fund a third party organization from out of state to assist with development of short-term rental regulations and an efficient system for permitting, administration, monitoring and enforcement.
Property managers such as Adrienne Bulinski said they want more clarity about the proposal, including how much the fee would cost.
“They are trying to push something into action without details,” said Bulinski. “It’s kind of scary from the homeowner perspective with this being a fee that they can’t give us a dollar amount of what it is going to cost.”
Reimer said the proposed fee amount is still being discussed, but would be the same for each property. He estimated it around $200.
Bulinski started an online petition to hear about the impact to property owners and visitors who rent in the mountains.
“These people spend a ton of money in our state and if we start putting restrictions on that we are going to feel that throughout the community,” said Bulinski. “I think there are some great components that they are interested in implementing but those property owners who are vested in Summit County and making Summit County a great place are already doing those things.”
The restrictions include limiting parking spaces and the number of people who can stay in a short-term rental. Others require property managers to live or have another contact within 30 miles of the homes they manage.
There will be a second public hearing on Monday, Sept. 17 to continue the conversation in Summit County.