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- ' MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,June 22,2015 7:00 o'clock p.m. l0. #15-3759 REQUEST FOR ORDINANCE RELATED TO VACATION RENTALS Barnhart stated the practice of renting a person's home for vacationers is becoming more prevalent, and that over the past several weeks, Council Member Walsh has received complaints regarding the use of single-family homes for vacation rentals. City Code does not currently regulate the use of a home for short or long-term rentals. In addition, Staff has learned that some property owners purchase a home for the primary purpose to rent it on both a short and long-term basis as income property. A cursory review of these sites found 6-15 properties on each site advertising Orono, including one site on Big Island and another single room. The concerns raised are related to noise, number of guests, neighborhood traffic,parking, and guest safety. Barnhart stated enforcement will be a challenge, similar to the provision that prohibits the rental of boat slips. Staff must periodically review advertisements and craigslist to find sites,which could use a considerable amount of Staff time. Barnhart stated Staff would like some feedback on how they would like to proceed on this issue. Printup asked if this would cover vacation rentals as opposed to someone just renting a house. Walsh stated it would be short-term rentals, such as daily or weekly. Barnhart stated the City has heard more recently about weekly rentals and that currently the City does not really regulate rentals. Barnhart stated it is also hard to regulate ownership of a house. Barnhart stated the more recent issues have dealt with situations where people come for a vacation and the neighbors experience problems. McMillan noted the City does not regulate year-long rentals currently. McMillan stated in her neighborhood they have two rentals homes and that they have experienced issues periodically but those related to homes that were rented for a year-plus. McMillan stated she is sure the short-term rentals are happening more on the lake. Walsh stated some cities regulate hotels, which are short-term rentals,but that the hotel has to be eight stories or higher. Walsh noted one of the other cities just took their hotel regulations and amended them to cover short-term rentals. Walsh stated there would need to be appropriate zoning in order to have a hotel, but that amending those existing regulations made it easy to dea] with the weekly or daily rentals. Walsh stated this is more of a summertime issue, but that he is aware of a person who has someone renting their house out every week two doars down from him. Walsh indicated that person has had to deal with the traffic, noise, and lack of regular maintenance on the home. Printup stated he would be interested in hearing more about this. Walsh stated with the Internet,there are a number of sites where people can advertise their homes for rent. McMillan asked if there is anything under the City's regulations relating to noise or nuisance that could help to address some of the issues. McMillan asked if the complaints are related to noise or destruction of property. Page 12 of 19