A city council meeting in Kelowna on Tuesday lasted more than four hours, with many residents in attendance, in person and online, regarding short-term rental regulations.
After much public input at meeting’s end, it was much ado about nothing. Council deferred making any recommended changes to the city’s short-term rental bylaws.
In announcing that 6-1 vote to defer, council said it would wait until more is known about forthcoming provincial regulations regarding short-term rentals.
“The proposed changes, which have not been approved at this time, included updates to the City of Kelowna’s zoning bylaw to remove short-term rental accommodation as a permitted secondary use across all zones,” the city said on Wednesday. “This decision means existing rules governing short-term rentals within Kelowna currently remain in effect.”
Secondary-use translates into places where the owners don’t primarily live (more than 240 days).
The city also noted its temporary pause on short-term rental business licence applications continues. The pause went into effect on Oct. 23 and includes all applications.
The city says its zoning bylaw amendments aim to remove short-term rental accommodation as a permitted secondary use from all zones.
It also said when its short-term rental bylaws were originally put in place in 2019, one of the principles was that long-term rental housing would not be negatively impacted.
During Tuesday’s meeting, council was told by city staff that short-term rentals are contradicting the city’s guiding principles.
Citing the city’s housing needs assessment in September, council heard that “Kelowna has a current deficit of as many as 5,000 homes, and will continue to experience a housing shortage unless we take action on the housing crisis.”
Two council members, Maxine DeHart and Loyal Wooldridge, excused themselves from the proceedings, saying they were both in conflict regarding short-term rental units.
DeHart said she and her husband own two units, while Woolridge said he has a short-term rental license.
Near the meeting’s end, Mayor Tom Dyas said that through this period of time, staff will continue to hold discussions with the province as regulations are finalized.
Councillors Ron Cannan and Charlie Hodge both submitted that the issue be deferred, with the vote carrying 6-1.
“Council indicated that before a decision can be made, more information is needed with respect to yet-to-be-announced regulations for the implementation of the provincial government’s Short-term Rental Accommodations Act,” the city said on Wednesday.
“This includes more detailed guidance regarding new principal residence requirements; changes to legal non-conforming use protections; the provincial short-term rental registry; the provincial compliance and enforcement unit; and increased fines or tickets.”
The lengthy council meeting is available online.