By Steve Hubrecht
For the first time last week Invermere council was tasked with making decisions on temporary use permits (TUPs) for several short-term rentals (STRs).
The STR issue has dominated the municipal agenda for years, and regulations were introduced earlier this spring. Those rules mandate that STRs here must have business licences to operate, and if the STR is in a neighbourhood not zoned to allow STRs, they must also have a TUP.
The bylaw limits the number of guests at any one STR to eight, and sets a maximum of two guests per room.
But there are multiple STRs here that advertise space for more than eight guests. During the Tuesday, Sept. 9 council meeting, the owners of four of those STRs sought an exemption, applying for TUPs that would either allow them more than eight guests, or allow more than two guests per room.
All four received TUP permits, but in two cases the STR owners did not get all they asked for. The owners of an STR in downtown Invermere on 4th Street wanted a TUP for 12 guests, but council limited their TUP to 10 guests (two above the normal limit of eight). The owners of another STR in the Kpokl neighbourhood, on Taynton Drive, asked for a TUP allowing 14 guests. Invermere council also limited their TUP to 10 guests. (The same house was, as of press time, listed for sale for $2.2 million.)
Of the 4th Street STR application for 12 guests, Invermere Mayor Al Miller said, “I’d like to stick to the number of 10. I just don’t think we really need to have that many people (12) in a particular location.”
Other councillors disagreed with Miller about the 10 guests.
“We did have a lot of discussion around the number (the maximum of eight). We went back and forth a lot . . . I would like to stick with eight,” said councillor Theresa Wood. Councillor Kayja Becker also wanted to keep the limit at eight.
In the end council voted 3-2 in favour of giving the 4th Street STR a TUP for 10 guests (Becker and Wood were the two opposing votes).
It was a similar story with the Taynton Drive home, which also got a TUP for 10 guests by a 3-2 vote (with Becker and Wood again the opposing votes).
Invermere planner Rory Hromadnik noted that the home, which is nearly 4,000 square feet, was built five years ago by owners from Ontario, and was purposefully built to serve as an STR and — when not being rented out — as a vacation home for the owners’ extended family of 30.
Councillor Gerry Taft said the Taynton Drive TUP application was different in his mind because the Kpokl neighbourhood has “a kind of a resort feel.” Several of the other councillors said STR regulations should be consistent across all Invermere’s neighbourhoods, regardless of their ‘feel’.
Councillors had no qualms about the two other STR applications, however, approving a TUP for nine guests on Lower Lakeview Road in Fort Point, as well as approving a TUP for eight guests total (but with four people in a single room on bunk beds) on 1A Avenue, also in Fort Point.
“It’s probably kids in those bunk beds. I’m okay with that,” said Miller.
“I never thought we’d need to make decisions about bedroom furniture layout — bunk beds and pullout couches,” added Taft.
The two Fort Point STR applications attracted two letters of complaint from Fort Point residents concerned about the proliferation of STRs in their neighbourhood and STR impacts on Invermere as a whole.
Several Fort Point residents were at the council meeting. Joan Rouse asked if council would ever consider implementing a principal resident requirement. Becker left the door open for that as a potential future possibility, replying that the way Invermere manages STRs is “ever evolving” and its bylaws will no doubt be updated one day, and that, consequently, a principal residency requirement could be considered one day.
Rouse also asked about enforcement of STR regulations. Hromadnik replied that the district is joining the provincial STR registry and has “engaged a contractor” — digital services company Granicus, which often works with government organizations.
Granicus will have a phone number that residents with STR-related complaints can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week (meaning the work of STR rule enforcement will not fall on Invermere’s bylaw officer.) As well, Granicus will monitor Invermere STR advertising on rental platforms (such as AirBnB, VRBO, and others) and double check whether or not the STRs have the required business licences and TUPs. If they don’t, an automatic discipline letter will be sent, and the rental platforms (AirBnB, VRBO, and others) will pull that STR’s advertisements from their sites.
“It will take some time, but the wheels are in motion on this,” said Hromadnik.
Invermere resident Mike Fairhart also spoke at the meeting, emphasizing that “compliance and enforcement are key.” Fairhart lives near an STR operator who has allegedly created problems in the neighbourhood, and Fairhart has registered half a dozen formal complaints with the district over the past few years. “Yet, I’ve seen very little happen and that concerns me,” said Fairhart. He added that STRs do help the tourism economy, which is important, but they also change the character of a community, and take away from long-term rentals. “What do we want our community to look like in the future?” asked Fairhart.
