Meaford’s council is getting closer to establishing a short-term accommodations (STA) bylaw, after receiving an update report from municipal staff during the Monday, December 11 meeting of council. Council unanimously offered initial support for the recommendation to direct staff to develop a licensing bylaw, licensing program, and enforcement program aimed at addressing negative impacts that can be experienced by neighbouring property owners, noting six specific areas of focus: on-site parking, availability of STA site manager to address issues, occupancy limits, basic fire safety provision, infraction reporting mechanisms, and availability of municipal enforcement officers during evenings and weekends.
Like many communities across the province, the Municipality of Meaford has struggled with what to do about short-term rentals, a blossoming industry that, though crucial to the economy of any municipality that relies on tourism resulting in a significant contribution to the local economy, it is not without negative impacts.
Members of council have noted that during the 2022 municipal election campaign, short-term rental property issues was one of the topics they heard about most from Meaford residents, hence council has made the issue one of their top priorities for this term of council.
“Council has identified the adoption of a short-term accommodations (STA) licensing bylaw as a strategic priority for the 2022-2026 term. This is the second status report of the project and provides background information and community and stakeholder feedback received to date from the public engagement process, as well as recommendations for moving ahead. As defined in the project charter the engagement consisted of staff meeting with the public for discussion and an online questionnaire,” staff noted in their report to council.
In June, council took the first steps toward regulating short-term rentals, and gave direction to municipal staff to explore the regulations and licensing bylaws that have been established by other municipalities to use as a framework for the Municipality of Meaford. Council also directed staff to limit the number of public input meetings to one, as they hoped to have a bylaw in place before the end of the year.
Sixty-eight Meaford residents attended four two-hour public engagement sessions that were held at Meaford Hall on October 24. In addition to the public engagement sessions, a questionnaire was made available from mid October through early November, which garnered 501 responses. Staff also reviewed correspondence sent to the Municipality relating to short-term accommodations.
The public engagement identified a number of concerns both from residents and short-term rental property owners, which helped staff to prepare the 24-page stage two report presented to council on December 11, and to develop recommendations for council’s consideration.
During council’s discussion of the report, Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney asked if the municipality’s fire department currently has the manpower and ability to conduct fire inspection on all of the short-term rental properties in the municipality, estimated to be more than 200 properties.
“Yes, if we are willing to reduce our level of service somewhere else,” responded municipal Clerk and acting CAO Matt Smith. “If we want to keep doing all of the things we are doing, then no.”
Members of council noted that their goal is to ensure that licensing and regulating short-term rental properties will not cost Meaford’s ratepayers any additional money.
“I don’t want STA regulation, registration, and enforcement to cost our taxpayers money, I want it to be a revenue neutral situation,” noted Councillor Harley Greenfield during council’s discussion of the issue.
The Acting CAO noted that the project charter established by council and staff for short-term rentals includes direction for the program to be revenue neutral.
The next step will be for staff to draft a bylaw and conduct a legal review and associated edits of that draft. The proposed bylaw will then be brought forward to the Committee of the Whole for deliberation, followed by consideration by council.
When the draft short-term accommodations bylaw is presented to council in the new year, staff noted that the associated report will detail the expected financial impacts of the STA licensing program.
The full 24-page report is available on the municipal website (meaford.ca).
