Meaford Council (Image from YouTube)
Meaford’s Committee of the Whole is adjusting a project plan for addressing local short-term accommodation (STA) rental concerns.
During a meeting on May 29, the committee received a report from CAO Rob Armstrong. It recommended having council adopt the project charter, which outlines the process for examining, documenting, assessing, and presenting options for strategic actions for council to address the concerns.
The report says in May 2022, council directed staff to bring forward a report on STA rentals in Meaford, with options for regulation, details of the number of STAs in the municipality, and the number of complaints received.
During the lengthy meeting, council had a discussion with staff about adjusting aspects of the draft project plan.
Armstrong says as a result, council voted on researching different types of by-laws, scoping down the amount of consultations with residents to one and hold a questionnaire, and to receive a draft-by-law concerning STA’s at the end of this project.
During the meeting, staff mentioned concerns had been raised by residents surrounding STAs. Armstrong says more information surrounding this will be part of staff’s review and study.
“Council heard, as part of the election that a number of the public are very concerned about the impacts of these and therefore they have made it a priority for staff to review and look at ways of licensing them. The study will have to look at what those impacts are because you want to make sure the by-laws that you bring forward look at dealing with those concerns that we are hearing about from the public,” says Armstrong.
He says part of the research they will be conducting will be looking at the amount of STAs in the area, which he believes there to be around 200 currently.
“Just like many other communities, there are two key issues. One is impacts on residential neighbourhoods and the other is those that are being used for short-term rentals could otherwise be used for housing and with the housing challenges that many communities are facing, there is concern about that. On the flip side, there is a lot of belief that a lot of these do provide accommodations for visitors to our community which drives economic development. Those are all the things we will be looking at as part of our study,” says Armstrong.
He adds no date has been set for the consultation and a questionnaire as staff must first conduct research on the by-law they would bring to council. The by-law for council to consider, however, Armstrong says, would not be brought forward until Q4 of this year.