"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT District staff report to Council as soon as
possible on the feasibility of
enforcing current Bylaws pertaining to the issues of short term rentals in Tofino;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Council direct staff to investigate the impact of
allowing short term rentals in principle residences only "
from Oct 31 council meeting
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47 comments:
Council is digging beneath every possible rock, try to find a solution to the lack of housing in Tofino. It's easier to place the blame, and thus expect the solution to be found, in the short term rentals sector, than it is to admit that the problem exists because of the lack of housing development in past years. Especially lower priced, smaller units.
Here's a possible solution:Drain the swamp in the district office and get some development permits approved.
Did you notice that the new affordable units at the Gateway Development have all been sold, even before construction is finished. This shows the obvious demand for such projects. But that developer is fustrated and disgusted with trying to work with District staff and council and has moved his efforts out of Tofino. No local contractors will even dream of entangling themselves in any type of development project if The District of Tofino is involved, so nothing is getting built. So there's no housing. Thank the District Office for it, and live in a tent. (Illegal campsites, incredibly, ARE considered to be an acceptable solution to the housing crunch)
short term rentals in principle residences. Isn't that what the bylaw says.
Sounds good to me
It will put an end to people from Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and Seattle buying houses here for use as short term rentals. Good. They are actively destroying the community.
Need a vacancy tax like in Vancouver as well.
One of the best ways to acheive a political goal is to give the people someone they can hate. Hitler had the Jews, Bush had Saddam, Tofino Council has vacation rentals. The Jews controlled all the money, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and vacation rentals are the root cause of homelessness in Tofino....... and there's lots of stupid people ready to follow the stick and carrot so mayor and council can achieve their goal of avoiding responsibility for the lack of housing. Sure, let's shut down all the vacation rentals. Good idea. But there still won't be enough residential housing, and there'll be less customers for the tourism based businesses. Less surfers, less whale watchers, less rides to Hot Springs, less restaurant meals, less sportsfishermen, less jobs, less money in the community. Before you decide to shoot bullets in the direction of the golden goose, you'd better think about what's going to happen if you wound or kill it.
Many on council have vacation rentals or bed and breakfast operations.This proposed initiative seems to be aimed at keeping local ownership. FWIW , Vancouver is doing the same thing . I don't think there is a similar regulation in Ucluelet or Millstream. Will check.
Oh, so it's about using their power in government to protect and preserve their own businesses from others? To provide themselves and their friends with a form of monopoly? Sounds just a wee bit corrupt, if that's the case. (but we're not allowed to say "conflict of interest", right?)
Isn't that localism ? Not very progressive.
They seem to favour ghetto campgrounds and Poole's .Both could be developed as decent housing.Not much makes sense here.
@8:59 I think the idea is to preserve residential neighborhoods for people that actually live here.This doesn't restrict the number of short term rentals it just restricts who can operate them . A management company could still operate them but the unit would have to be a part of a principle residence.
Isn't this an attack on property owner's rights ? We should be able to do what we want with property we own . This is blatant discrimination.
This will allow more families to live here. It is a good law. If some rich speculators don't like it , who cares ? Not me
10:13PM Families are allowed to live here now...... The problem is that Tofino Council won't allow developers to build affordable housing for them to live in. Don't be blinded by the "vacation rental" smokescreen, being put up to hide the District's ineptitude.
It is immoral to pimp out our homes
Between amenities , Development Cost Charges and the ridiculously long approval time it is expensive to develop here. Speculators want too much money for raw land. Without the extra money from VRs a lot of families couldn't afford to be here. It is equally the fault of greedy land owners as the District .
Ahh but 10:48, you miss the point. It is because of VR's that the prices of real estate are so high here. You are competing against people who wish to turn the property into a business property. Because it can generate income the prices of the homes go up in Tofino.
It isn't because some surfer dude or dudette wishes to live here that the real estate prices are so high or that there is a lack of 'housing'.
10:48 keeps confusing issues. Probably intentional.
Yeah, they ought to change things so that if a dude wants to get a job as a part-time dishwasher and surf every day, that he can afford a four bedroom house on the beach with water views, a hot tub, and two fireplaces. The system is rigged to allow only rich people to live in the prime real estate areas, just because they have the cash to buy these places. Poor people want to live on the beach too!!
The District and the councilors of the last 15 years have worked hard to short supply. They did a great job. Those "big buck" people that 8:20 wants to see suffer won't. They will simply shrug their shoulders and pay their mortgage, if they have one. It is all the locals that have to turn their houses into hostels, hotels and BnB's that will scramble and possibly lose their homes. Maybe council can raise the water rates a little higher and increase their taxes a touch so it ends quickly for them.
12:44 you still miss the point being made by 8:20.
The housing is disappearing because people can pay inflated prices and pay their mortgages with the illegal VR. Over half of the property tax notices in this town are mailed to out of town addresses. That tells you they are not principal residences of the owners and they have no concern about what they are doing to Tofino by their holding residential housing stock here.
Re 12:44 PM The issue is not with those who turn their houses into hostels,hotels and BnBs, as long as they do it legally. The issue is with those who are wealthy enough to own a second house and choose to do short term rentals rather than live in it or provide a long term rental. Some may choose to do nothing and leave the house empty, some may choose to sell - increasing the available housing stock and some may decide to do long term rentals. Vancouver estimate 1 in 5 short term rentals will convert to long term. Every little bit helps!
Many houses at Chestermans have four and five individual suites. All rented separately . It's assholes like these owners that should be shut down . Fire traps !!
One already burned
Sorry , I can't post that as it is actionable. Please rephrase your comment. Thank you , Ralph
4:53 exactly right. All the complaints about council allowing all this VR stuff to happen wouldn't have IF council had decreed that along with allowing them to occur, the properties had to be owner occupied. That is where district staff and council got us into this mess. The theory was that there would be a rental property for a local to rent and allow the VR to operate. Those local to rent places evaporated, there were no owners on site and instead of a small increase in rental housing and a small increase in the number of homes being rented to visitors we've had the explosion. The absent owners quickly realized they had a money machine on their hands with which to afford to pay inflated real estate prices and little chance of being caught. Who is going to complain about a noisy VR when all the neighbourhood homes are VR's? Worst of all we have had the town gutted of families who actually live here.
Looked at the byline again
Are these councillors looking to weasel out of enforcing their bylaws? That would be a catastrophic fail for Tofino. Every 10 to 15 years they just change the goal posts. Gutless and would be the ruin of the town for a generation.
But this is what comes of years of lack of enforcement. To big to fail. Kick the can down the road. Gutless.
Enforce the bylaws. DRAIN THE SWAMP
There are a few greedy people posting here supporting illegal vacation rentals.They care nothing for the well being of families or the community.Please enforce the bylaws.
Better to have a good healthy hate for short term rentals than to have a viable tourism based economy. Better for council to shoot the blame at accomodation providers than to criticize the inept workings of the office of the manager of Community Sustainability. Better for all concerned to fight over existing real estate than to approve development of more affordable housing for families. Shoot the golden goose: great idea! And don't EVER criticize mayor and council. They're quite comfortable sitting on their butts, doing nothing to solve the housing problem other than to attack a few vacation rental operators, rather than tell District staff to GET TO WORK AND BRING US SOME DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS TO APPROVE! That would mean that staff would actually need to do some work and they might complain about that, eh?
Vacations Rentals don't need to be "illegal". They could be licensed and taxed. (they exist because there is a demand for this service). Affordable housing for residents could be built. "The well being of families and the community", in Tofino, depends upon a healthy tourism based economy, not upon enforcement of stupid, outdated, ineffectual bylaws.
If you can't/won't inforce the bylaws, there will never be a viable supply of housing for working folk. All this talk of approving more development is meaningfull only in an environment were bylaws are enforced. Otherwise it will end up like much of the current housing. Vacation rental. Somebody on this site seems to have a big interest at stake and is blowing major smoke at readers to protect that interest.
Actually 2:14 it is better to have a community with some heart and soul than to have the damn tourist based economy we have right now.
Reply to 11:21AM: There are a few greedy people posting here attacking vacation rentals. They care nothing about having a healthy tourism based economy to support families and the community, they're only hoping they might find themselves a cheap rental in a beach house. Tell 'em to take their party elsewhere.
@3:01 That is what the bylaw will do.It will ensure that Vacation Rentals are locally based. If you don 't want to live as a caretaker at your Vacation Rental you can always sell it to someone that wants to live in Tofino and participate in the community.It is an excellent bylaw the puts community and families first.
Actually, 2:56, next time you deposit your paycheque ask yourself where it came from? Are you having "heart and soul" stew for dinner tonight? Perhaps you work for an aquaculture company, but otherwise it's most likely that your living depends upon tourism. Poets aren't doing real well nowadays.
Tofino did just fine before the house pimps. Tourists stayed in hotels and campsites . Neighborhoods were where locals lived. A very few people had Bed and Breakfasts. Chesterman's Beach used to be a community before the house pimps took over. Nobody likes a pimp .
Wow 3:35!! We're all going back to the 70's?? Polyester? Mullets? Great!! Let's start by closing up those surf shops and getting those dirty surfers out of town. Then we'll get rid of that pesky National Park. Will we be bringing back the loggers too? The people of Tofino did just fine then.....all 800 of them.
A local family has moved into a long term rental at the Shore. Nice to see.It was never intended for short term rentals.
Enforce the bylaws ! Make Tofino Great Again ! Drain the Swamp !
Donald Trump has announced that he may only live in the White House part time......... perhaps the place will become an Airbnb vacation rental when Donald's in New York? http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-wants-to-live-only-part-time-in-white-house-report-1624823
Some of the comments on here are getting hysterical. Just enforce the bylaws or we are done, bigly.
To all the illegal VR's. LOCK THEM UP, LOCK THEM UP, LOCK THEM UP.
Hey 3:24 my pay check does come from Tourism. My income was WAY higher before all these illegal VR's, dropping 50% since they came on the scene. That 50% is probably more than you earn 3:24.
Just because the town is filled with tourists does not mean they provide income for all the tourist dependent businesses.
Enforce the damn bylaws and let's get the town back so people can become actual residents.
Enforcing the bylaws is one thing. Changing the rules so only local full time residents can offer a vacation suite in their home is a very different thing. Most of the comments on here appear to be about those folks that are operating illegal suites, but what if you bought a vacation home in a community you loved and followed the local bylaws and then one day discovered the district changed the rules so that you could no longer rent the legal suite that allowed you to afford your house? I sense some legal issues with that direction.
If you loved the community you would live here instead of speculating on real estate here.
You're making an assumption that I am a real estate speculator, which is misplaced. Just trying to have people think of others instead of themselves. I know plenty of people who plan to come to Tofino to retire and have bought houses in the last few years while they thought they could still afford them with the help of legal VR. I'm also totally OK with the bylaws as they are and they should be enforced, just think that adding a principal residence requirement is unfair to people who have already purchased with a different set of rules in place.
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