By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
A new survey conducted in early 2023 shows 76 percent of respondents want the RDOS to be involved in permitting Temporary Use Permits (TUP) for vacation rentals in the region and 65 per cent says they should be more proactive in tracking and enforcement.
Evelyn Riechert, RDOS Planner, presented the Vacation Rental Survey’s findings to the RDOS Planning and Development Committee at their March 16 meeting.
The Vacation Rental Survey was conducted by the RDOS to get input from residents and TUP holders on their thoughts on vacation rentals in the area as this has been a hot topic issue as of late.
Some highlights include strong agreement that vacation rentals are a part of the economy and the tourism industry.
People from across the general public and TUP overwhelmingly supported either keeping the maximum of 10 people permitted within a vacation rental, or lowering the maximum number of people while there was very little support for increasing the maximum number of people.
Respondents also supported vacation rental operators registering on RDOS Website and having a Health and Safety inspection from a qualified individual to ensure the building meets minimum safety standards.
Notification letters being sent to all property owners within 100 metre radius had 66 per cent support. This is in comparison to the other two requirements – a public information meeting, and for an APC (Advisory Planning Commission) meeting – which had fairly low support. Out of a total of 24 TUP holders, 13 of them said it was not at all useful.
The survey also asked people If you operate a vacation rental but don’t have a TUP why? The majority of answers referred to the process being too arduous and there being too much red tape.Additionally some people indicated that the government should not be interfering.
The survey was open for about six weeks from Jan. 3 to Feb. 15. There were two surveys conducted, one to the general public and the other to people who currently hold TUP’s. The survey received 1,630 responses for the survey targeting the general public, and 24 responses for the TUP focused survey.
Riechert noted in her presentation that these types of surveys are not statistically verified. This means that they are “basically self-selecting”, people who have an issue will answer the questions and “those who don’t won’t”.
But she continued that it nonetheless, still provides a good indication of where the public is at on this issue. The largest number of respondents were from Area E: Naramata. This area has had ongoing problems with empty houses and temporary-use permits for vacation properties contributing to the housing crisis.
