The Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is still struggling to agree on how to move forward with a planned Vacation Rental Review and voted to drop it as it stood.
At their April 4, Planning and Development Committee they discussed and ultimately voted to drop the review as it was brought to the board and reassess how to move forward after a planned meeting in May on business licensing.
The meeting was intended to find direction on the scope of the planned Vacation Rental Review, which has been on the RDOS radar since at least 2021, when a recommendation was made to the board to review the existing vacation rental policies. The plan was to bring an outside party in to perform a “vacation rental review report”, gathering information on things like the impacts on the residential rental market, neighbourhoods, existing traditional accommodation providers, and the local economy.
A review would also be conducted for things such as regulatory options including Temporary Use Permits (TUP), business licensing requirements, enforcement options and health and safety considerations.
The board was split on how it felt about the scope of the review. Bob Coyne, director of Area “H” Rural Princeton, explained that he thinks they can trim down the deliverables as some of these questions have already been answered in other reviews conducted in the region.
Penticton city councillor James Miller, expressed that since Penticton, Summerland, and Oliver have all conducted similar research already, he explained “I don’t think this is necessary at all.”
Despite some not wanting the review, and some wanting to trim down the review, others expressed their belief in how important a full review is. Adrienne Fredrigo, Director of Area “E” Naramata, explained, “This is important for us, it needs to be done.”
Throughout the discussion, it was noted how difficult it would be for some of this to be done by a third party, as each area has its own nuances and has to be considered area by area. Coyne explained that some of this information he doesn’t think can be handed off to a consultant. Further saying that “we really need to get these things out of community members.”
Spencer Coyne, Mayor of Princeton on the other hand thinks the main problem is the lack of enforcement on the TUP system, “It’s not the system, it’s that we are not enforcing the system.”
All the varied responses in the discussion led to Riley Gettens, Director of Area “F”, putting forward a motion to drop the review as it currently stands so that they can reformat the request for a vacation rental review with more up-to-date information and after they have a workshop about business licensing in May. Bob Coyne responded that there is no way he would support dropping this, “To stop now in mid-stream, I would not support that.”
By a narrow margin the vote passed to drop the review in its current form and to revisit it after the business licensing workshop which will take place on May 9, 2024.
The plan is then to initiate a revised vacation rental regulatory policy, addressing both the RDOS areas that opted in and those that stayed out of the primary residence requirement of the provincial legislation.
This planned Vacation Rental Review comes after some significant recent legislative changes, such as the Short-term Rental Accommodations Act (Bill 35) that received assent in Oct. 2023. Three areas in the RDOS also chose to opt-in to the principal residence requirement of Bill 35, while the other areas opted out.
As it currently stands, the RDOS has regulated vacation rentals through zoning controls, and permitting requirements. Vacation rentals are prohibited in almost all zones, except Apex Mountain resort and Twin Lakes.
In order to operate one outside of those two areas the RDOS board has to approve a TUP.
