By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]

The Regional District of the East Kootenay (RDEK) is seeking input from residents on the issue of short-term rentals.

The survey is part of a larger planning process that RDEK staff are undertaking to help the board of directors identify options and approaches to deal with the issue in rural areas of the RDEK (which includes all the Columbia Valley except the village of Radium Hot Springs, district of Invermere, and village of Canal Flats).

“The idea is to gain an understanding of how the different communit[ies] in the regional district perceive short term rentals,” RDEK planning coordinator Karen McLeod told the Pioneer, emphasizing that the RDEK does not want to go into the planning process to deal with short term rentals “with an assumption of negativity or an assumption of positivity about short term rentals.”

McLeod added that the RDEK has heard a good deal of discussion, particularly surrounding concerns, in the past several years.

“The intent of the project is a deep dive into the topic, to get an idea of the complexities of the short-term rental issues in the regional district,” she says.

Anecdotal accounts of the number of the short-term rentals available in Columbia Valley maintain that it has skyrocketed in recent years, thanks to websites such as AirBnB and VRBO, but McLeod cautioned that “the Columbia Valley has always had short term rentals as part of its local economy. There definitely has been a perceived increase in the last few years. But part of this project is to assess if that is hearsay or to see if there are some hard numbers that back that up.”

The planning process will use data from the regional district housing needs assessment, as well as help from short-term rental analytics company AirDNA.

“We’re hoping to get something quantitative out of it rather than qualitative,” McLeod told the Pioneer.

McLeod emphasized that this is “really an exploratory project” and that the end goal is a list of recommendations for the board detailing standards on dealing with short-term rentals. Ideally, this will be done sometime in spring or early summer 2022.

“Over the past few years, we, at both the board and staff level, have experienced an increase in public concern regarding short-term rental accommodations,” said RDEK Board Chair Rob Gay. “As a result, one of our strategic priorities for 2021 is to undertake a planning process to formally gather public input and look at the best management options available.” 

Gay encouraged all residents, renters and property owners in the rural, unincorporated areas of the RDEK to participate in the survey, saying “we recognize there are differences across our region, and we would really like to see wide-ranging participation.”  

For purposes of the survey, short-term rentals are defined as the accommodation of paying guests in a single-family dwelling, a room (or rooms) within a single-family dwelling, a secondary suite, an apartment or a condo for terms of less than 30 days.

The survey deadline is August 4. It can be filled out online at engage.rdek.bc.ca/rentals.