City of Charlottetown wants short-term rentals defined as tourism accommodations
'We just want to make sure that they're properly regulated'
The City of Charlottetown is looking to change its zoning bylaws to include short-term rentals as tourism accommodations.
At a public meeting Tuesday night, members of the city's planning board outlined defining short-term rentals like Airbnb's or bed and breakfasts as tourism accommodations.
It also proposed changes that would restrict the number of bedrooms tourism accommodations could have depending on the type of residential zone it was located in.
Under the changes, most accommodations would only be allowed up to four bedrooms. Heritage homes could have up to seven.
City planner Laurel Palmer Thompson said these amendments to the bylaw would help with the city's plan to regulate short-term rentals.
"We're defining them so that it's clear what it is so that we were able to regulate them, what neighbourhoods they go in," Palmer Thompson said.
"By limiting the lot area requirement you're not permitted to just come in and put in as many beds as you want in an overnight accommodation."
Concerns over legitimizing short-term rentals
But several people at the meeting cited concerns over defining short-term rentals, including Brian Gillis who said the amendments have the potential to legitimize those types of accommodations.
He also said it could exacerbate Charlottetown's low vacancy rate.
"The community is in crisis in terms of our affordability of homes for families and the short-term rentals, Airbnb, call it what you want, is ... one of the issues that's part of the crisis," he said.
In November 2018 the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported Charlottetown's apartment vacancy rate for the year at 0.2 per cent.
In April a CBC analysis found nearly two per cent of housing in the city — one in 50 private dwellings — was listed on the website Airbnb, the second-highest proportion in the country. That same analysis found the top host in Charlottetown had 12 properties listed on the site.
But Palmer Thompson argued that by defining short-term rentals as tourism accommodations, the city would be better able to limit them.
"We're not trying to basically quash the whole thing. Bed and breakfasts have always been a use that have been permitted within the bylaw," she said.
"We just want to make sure that they're properly regulated, they meet the requirements of the bylaw and they meet the requirements of any codes that are required."