A number of changes are being proposed for short-term accommodations, STAs, in the county.
Thursday, Prince Edward County’s Committee of the Whole heard staff recommendations for by-laws changes regarding STAs.
Recommendations included capping the issuance of new STA licenses to zero with the exception of natural person/owner-occupied accommodations, and fully-accessible rentals, a maximum of three at a time, outside the county’s R3 and R4 zones.
Director of Community Programs, Services and Initiatives, Emily Cowan, says the county’s R3 and R4 zones is where new affordable housing is set to be.
“We’re trying to protect these more affordable and attainable housing types from being used as short-term accommodations.”
Some councilors expressed concern with the recommendation that new STAs be licensed under a natural person instead of companies or corporations due to potential differences in insurance liability a person can receive compared to a company.
Director of Corporate and Legislative Services, Arryn McNichol, says another change staff are looking into is increasing fines for unlicensed STA operators.
“We’re looking at revising the fines and perhaps having steeper fines for those individuals that are captured in this manner and then even perhaps having a tier where the fist fine would be X amount and then next fine would be perhaps double and then so on and so forth.”
County resident and STA operator, Davelle Morrison says there should be a difference in penalties for operators who are licensed and who may have simply made a clerical error.
“The fines of 1,000 2,000 and 4,000 are the same for licensed STA’s as unlicensed STA’s. A thousand dollar fine to a licensed operator for a potential admin error of not posting a license seems excessive. After all why wouldn’t a licensed operator want their license on an advertisement?”
Staff say they are in the middle of procuring software to better track STA’s ensuring license numbers are on any STA advertisement.
A public consultation is planned for June 15 as part of the Planning Council meeting, prior to councils June 21 meet where final versions of the Zoning By-law, the STA Licensing By-law, and the Administrative Penalty By-law will be discussed with help of public feedback.
There are currently 578 STAs that are fully licensed and active, and 283 STAs that are pending, this could be awaiting an invoice, payment, an inspection or inspection follow up.
