P&Z to debate tourist homes

SANDPOINT — The tricky trouble with tourist homes and resort city taxes is bouncing to yet another governing city body.

The Planning Commission is set to take the next crack at the problem of enforcing taxes on tourist home, an issue that’s been on the city’s radar since the fall. In that time, it’s bounced from the Administrative Committee meeting to the City Council and back. After another discussion by the Administrative Committee last week, City Planner Jeremy Grimm said the recently reconstituted Planning Commission might represent the best start toward a solution.

According to Grimm, the Planning Commission will be approaching the final round of zoning revisions by focusing on the CA3B zone. While members are at that task, they could also work on the city code regarding vacation rentals.  

“If you want to accelerate that, I’d just need direction to do that,” Grimm said. “Or we could try to do them concurrently as one hearing and try to save some costs there.”

The primary issue centers city taxes for property owners who rent their homes for short periods to vacationers. While some individuals paid their taxes for home rentals lasting more than five days and fewer than 30, others simply left the business unreported.

“The biggest issue that we all recognize now is we have a large number of illegally-operated tourist homes in the RS zone,” Grimm said.

Aside from the lost tax revenue, unreported tourist homes also posed a legal risk to the city. City code states that the fire department will inspect a tourist home to ensure that it is a safe and properly equipped environment for vacationers to rent.

However, those inspections can only be performed at the request of the property owner because the city has no other way of knowing which homes are being rented. If a tourist rented an unsafe house and was injured or killed, the city could be liable for not inspecting the home.

“I really think if we clean up the code and know exactly what we’re doing, identify these people and have the opportunity to communicate directly with those who are in violation knowingly or unknowingly, it’ll be a pretty smooth process,” Councilwoman Carrie Logan said.

“And of course my bottom line is getting that revenue.”

However, before city officials take any action against those known to be operating vacation rentals illegally, they determined to sort out the city code first. Once the city policy legally outlines the enforcement process for this scenario, staff will be better equipped to approach the situation.

Once the City Council approves that the issue move on to the Planning Commission, members will approach it along with retooling the CA3B zone, which Grimm estimates will be finished by the end of the summer. In the meantime, enforcing the current code language on vacation rentals will be a low priority.