Minnedosa passes bylaw for short term rentals

The Town of Minnedosa has introduced a short-term rental bylaw that the mayor described as a bid to stay ahead of potential party rentals.

Minnedosa town council passed Bylaw No. 2609 by a unanimous vote in December, mainly as a proactive measure in case any nuisance rentals pop up, Mayor Ken Cameron told the Sun in a recent interview.

“We’re just trying to make sure we’re protecting all the ratepayers in town, and if they have an AirBnB pop up next door, it’s controlled,” mayor Ken Cameron told the Sun in an interview. “We do hear of places where people will rent AirBnB for a night or two nights on the weekend and just use it to party and cause grief to all the neighbours.

“We just decided to be proactive and get ahead of that.”

The bylaw created a list of rules about short-term rentals, including guidelines around guests, parking, noise and accountability.

The bylaw banned short-term rentals in the seasonal cottage area and Minnedosa Campground, and limited the number of guests to two people per legal bedroom and three dogs per property. The bylaw also requires hosts to install a sign at all entrances and exits reminding guests that quiet hours in town are from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week.

It also says that parking for guests must be on the property, and that guests and visitors cannot park travel trailers, motor homes and the like on the street to provide extra accommodation.

Cameron said he has not personally seen issues in Minnedosa with partying. But, he said councillors worried about stories from surrounding communities, and wanted to put bylaws in place in case anything popped up.

“We were hearing some horror stories about some short term rentals up at Onanole, Clear Lake area and some of the partying,” Cameron said. “We got talking about it, and I think council decided that we should probably have a good bylaw in place so that we can deal with the scenarios before they become problems to our ratepayers in town.”

Hosts will have to purchase a $200 license to operate a short-term rental, like an AirBnb, in town. The license application process asks hosts to comply with a few administrative tasks at the town.

The bylaw stipulates that the host must provide documentation to the town supporting the rental property application. The host also must provide contact information for two residents who live in the municipality that can respond within 15 minutes when contacted by the municipality to deal with any issues at the rental property.

The host will also need to comply with ongoing tasks such as to record the name, license plate and telephone number of overnight guests, and when requested by the municipality, supply that information.

Without the bylaw in place, the town would not have much to go off when dealing with trouble rentals, Cameron said. Council was worried that they could be caught unprepared, he said.

“It became clear to us that we needed to put some stuff in place, because if you don’t have a bylaw, then it’s hard to enforce anything.”

When the municipality endures costs to enforce the bylaw, that will be billed to the person who caused the enforcement action to be taken and the owner of the dwelling unit, and may be collected in the same manner as a tax is collected, the bylaw writes.

The Town will designate a short-term rental officer to oversee the program. The officer will have the authority to suspend licenses for up to 30 days if a host violates the bylaw, or cancel the license altogether.

While Minnedosa draws tourists for events such as Rockin’ in the Fields, and for the summer season at its lake, the bylaw was not created because of typical tourism, Cameron said; and the bylaw was not created to free up housing in the area — it was designed primarily as a precaution in case partying ever popped up as an issue, he said.

The Sun found three hosts on the popular short-term rental app AirBnB, but none would comment.

The bylaw states that a host who is denied a license, or who has their license suspended or cancelled, can request a review from the town council. The host can convene with council to have their request heard.

After the town denies, suspends or cancels a license, the host must wait until the end of the year following the calendar year in which the decision was made before making another application.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com