Thomas Holmes: Clear differences between short-term, long-term rentals

Tom Holmes nearly lost me at his first sentence:

“Pro-short-term rental advocates like to argue that there’s no difference between a short-term rental (STR) and a long-term-rental with the exception of the length of stay.”

He then proceeds to fall back on the flawed argument opponents like to use that equates STRs to hotels and motels in their failing efforts to insist that STRs are a commercial use of a property. (More on that at the end of this post)

Actually STR proponents are not the only ones that disagree with Tom's assessment. So do the courts. Surely he must have read the court’s recent ruling in the case he brought against STRs in Conway vs. Kudrick.

In her ruling Judge Ignatius stated that the zoning ordinance’s definition of residential/dwelling unit “does not relate to who is using the property OR FOR HOW LONG THEY CHOOSE TO DO SO (emphasis mine), but rather requires the nature of the use to be residential and not commercial.”

Judge Ignatius goes on: “…the fact that the defendant may rent his properties for one-day (or one-week or one-year) makes NO DIFFERENCE (again, emphasis mine) so long as the use is residential.”

Judge Ignatius concludes: “Importantly, the definition makes no reference to the duration of the occupant and the court refuses to read such a requirement into the definition here."

Holmes then goes on to suggest that paying room and meals tax is somehow “an important distinction”. But in the case of Russell vs. Donaldson, the court determined that “neither the financial benefit nor the advertisement of a property or the remittance of a lodging tax transforms the nature of the use of the property from residential to commercial.”

Lastly, let’s address Tom’s closing sentence:

“Short-term rentals are a business and a community has a long-established right to create zones that keep businesses out of residential areas”.

Let us assume for a moment that offering STRs IS a business. And to be clear, for some owners it may be a business. But ask yourself where that business is being operated. It’s not being run out of the STR property. The STR property is being used for its permitted use: as a residential property. No, if indeed the owner is operating a business, it’s likely being conducted from the owner's office, or possibly the owner's home office…but NOT from out of the STR.

The problem here is that STR opponents keep mixing up the terms in an effort to support their agenda by confusing the definitions of “residential” and “commercial” and “transient occupant” and “business”.

Tom Holmes was very deliberate in this most recent appeal to STR opponents. He no longer refers to the so-called “commercial use” of STRs as a way of disallowing them in residential zones. No, now he refers to them as “businesses” in an effort to do the same.

Nice try, Tom, but we’re not falling for it. After Judge Ignatius’ findings of fact you had the opportunity to simply admit you were wrong and finish your term as Town Manager with dignity. But instead you have chosen to double down. That’s a shame.

A few thoughts . A owner of long term rentals is a business owner , in fact , most often own many many propertys . Sometimes owned by large companies, the long term landlords . The little guy is the short term renter . So a long term rental is a business in residential zoning . The essence of the issue is lack of affordable housing. You Tom have indicated in the past that these properties would in fact become affordable housing if not for the short term rentals . This notion is false . I believe more could have been done earlier at the local and state level to encourage affordable housing projects. Instead the the response is to manufacture outrage over the practice of renting ski cabins , cottages , condos .. etc . This has been going on for generations. There used to be a magazine where you would call the owner and book your ski week in the 80s-90s . I don’t understand the argument, as there’s problems with tenants in both short term and long term. , but overall most folks are great . People like yourself might want to move here by buying a house and rent it till they are ready to make the move . … if your proposal’s go through this is impossible. But mostly it’s an affront to freedom, the big landlord can buy up the town no problem, but the little guy has new property restrictions deeded into his/her property till the end of days . This is the sort of thing that happens in socialist/ communist countries. Not in the USA where we encourage businesses , hard work and and private citizens owning and having basic rights regarding their property. This is government asserting control over private property in a big big way . Not the American way . It’s some other way , the wrong way . Like I said in the beginning, let’s solve the real problem of affordable housing and stop pointing fingers .