The issue of short-term rental licensing once again took center stage at Bluewater Council’s meeting on Monday (September 18) as the by-law came back for review following discussion at a council meeting on September 5th.
The key issue was the bylaw’s allowance for existing short-term rentals to apply for licenses in future years.
Councilor Whetstone recognized that this approach poses a problem as licenses issued for new operators may violate limits set on the density of short term rentals.
A proposal was put forward by staff to require operators to apply for licenses before November 1st.
Whetstone that he believed that the cutoff date for considering applicants as “new” should have had a hard line at the deadlines set initially throughout July and August. He proposed a hard deadline of September 30th for new applicants.
Councilor Lamport recognized the oversight in the bylaw, and noted that while councilors may have understood the deadline for applying, it wasn’t expressly stated in the bylaw.
Mayor Paul Klopp didn’t think that moving up the deadline was too harsh at all, quite the contrary.
The motion to change the deadline to September 30th was supported by several council members, and passed as an amendment, capping any applicants hoping to be grandfathered into the rental system to that date.
Written by: B. Shakyaver