Originally published in The Sylva Herald, March 9 edition.
Short-term rentals, an issue discussed in municipal boardrooms across the region, were on the minds of the Webster Town Council at their March 1 meeting.
The board discussed at length how to deal with rental organizations who, can “drive up the housing costs for people who just want places to live,” Mayor Tracy Rodes said. “We want to maintain the residential feel of our neighborhood, and too many short term rentals may change that.”
All six council members were in attendance, including mayor Rodes and vice-mayor Leigh Anne Young.
Sara Stahlman, chair of the Webster Planning Board, brought some proposed edits to Webster ordinances regarding short-term rentals. The edits were meant to “clarify and modernize” ordinances that were made before short-term rentals were common, she said.
However, the board was uncertain how these new clarifications would apply to rentals from before the new ordinance, which could be “grandfathered in.”
Stahlman emphasized that a good bit of land in Webster was being bought by people out of state who never even visited the town.
While Stahlman proposed the changes as a simple text amendment, the board decided the new language would qualify as a full ordinance, requiring a public hearing, and asked to have a lawyer look over the proposed amendments for any loopholes before drafting a new ordinance.
“Our attorney could not attend (last minute notice), so this was preliminary discussion of Planning Board recommendations on STRs,” Rodes said in a Monday interview. “We will not move forward without legal input.”
“On a separate topic, the possibility of accessory buildings being used as residential dwellings is not currently allowed, but if we did later decide to allow them, it could be seen as conflicting with our one acre minimum lot size,” Rodes said. “For example, if we allow every residence to have one accessory dwelling utilized as a residence, then that could conflict with the current one acre minimum for building.”
The board will not address any changes to current ordinances about accessory buildings at this time. The Planning Board recommendation is to clarify language to clearly state that STRs or rooms to rent must be in the owner’s main dwelling, such as a basement apartment, Rodes said.
As of Tuesday morning the Vrbo – Vacation Rental by Owner – website showed two properties for rent.
The site does not show addresses, provided to renters close to arrival time.
One of the homes, the “Layers View Lodge,” sleeps six in three bedrooms, offers mountain views from a hot tub and rents for $250 a night.
The other home is a contemporary design listed as “Wolfhaven” on the Vrbo site. It offers four beds and sleeps seven. A short hike up behind the house leads to a mountain view.
Vrbo is one of many hosting sites operating in the mountains. Airbnb, Evolve and others might offer more listings in the area.
