City clarifies some issues in earlier story
RACHEL Baird, development services director for the city of Alamosa, reached out Wednesday to update and correct for the record some of the material The Citizen provided in its initial story, “Alamosa addresses Airbnb market” (below).
Baird, in an email, said the city now has registered 24 short-term rentals after receiving an application on Tuesday. She also outlined corrections and clarifications to other provisions of the city’s proposal to adopt local rules for short-term rentals in Alamosa. From her email:
- The proposed ordinance does not establish 4 zones. As the ordinance is currently proposed, there must be a 300′ separation between STRs. The maps showing four areas were trying to illustrate how much 300′ versus 500′ would look like in different parts of town and how many properties that would exclude. The intention is to keep them about a block apart, but as you know, our block lengths vary quite a bit.
- Short-term rentals would be allowed in any single family or duplex dwelling (regardless of zone or area) as long as they are at least 300′ away from other STRs. Lawfully existing STRs can continue to operate even if they are within 300′ of other STRs, but new STRs have to be separated by at least 300′.
- There is no grace period to allow unregistered STRs to come into compliance, since they are by definition unlawful. However, we have notified all existing STRs that we could find listed on AirBnB and VRBO about these potential changes and are sending a follow-up letter to those STR owners who do not have a current business license with the City. Those STR owners can register their rental before the ordinance to achieve that grandfathered status.
- Regardless of any compliance/grandfathering status, all STRs will be required to apply for and obtain a STR and City Business license annually.
- There is no change in registration fees. The only fees assessed would be for the annual business license.
- There are currently 24 (as of today) STRs. We just got an application yesterday (Tuesday).
Determining the buffer zone, whether 300 feet or 500 feet, is one the bigger decisions the city council would make under the initial draft plan. Establishing a buffer essentially would cap the number of available short-term units in the city.
The Alamosa Planning Commission endorsed a 500-foot buffer zone, and the owners of the most short-term rentals in Alamosa also support the more restrictive buffer zone. “I think the radius is good,” said Carly Harmon, who along with her husband, Donnie Bautista, own five short-term rentals that range in price from $225 to $350 per night.
“What we’ve tried to do is have a portfolio of different houses and different styles and different sizes,” Harmon said. She said the couple is looking to add a sixth near Adams State, but beyond that is satisfied with their investments.
OCTOBER 31, 2021
Growth in short-term rentals and SLV housing crunch cause action
By Chris Lopez | clopez@alamosacitizen.com
ALAMOSA
A growing number of local short-term housing rentals that you’d typically find listed on Airbnb or Vrbo is causing the city of Alamosa to consider restrictions on them, making Alamosa the latest San Luis Valley community to address the growing popularity of short-term rentals.
Del Norte, La Jara, Crestone, South Fork, and neighboring Salida and Pagosa Springs, all have adopted local rules that oversee everything from parking, occupancy, license fees, and even the amount of time a local operator has to respond to a problem.
Alamosa’s approach would be to establish four areas of the city where short-term rentals could exist within either a 300-foot or 500-foot buffer zone of another rental, according to a draft of a proposal that was the topic of a recent Alamosa City Council work session.
Determining the buffer zone, whether 300 feet or 500 feet, is one the bigger decisions the city council would make under the initial draft plan. Establishing a buffer essentially would cap the number of available short-term units in the city.
The Alamosa Planning Commission endorsed a 500-foot buffer zone, and the owners of the most short-term rentals in Alamosa also support the more restrictive buffer zone. “I think the radius is good,” said Carly Harmon, who along with her husband, Donnie Bautista, own five short-term rentals that range in price from $225 to $350 per night.
“What we’ve tried to do is have a portfolio of different houses and different styles and different sizes,” Harmon said. She said the couple is looking to add a sixth near Adams State, but beyond that is satisfied with their investments.
Airbnb proposed buffers
THERE are 23 existing short-term rentals registered with the city, and some not registered. The registered rentals, like Harmon’s and Bautista’s, wouldn’t be affected by the proposal except maybe to pay a higher registration fee than the city currently charges. The city also would have a grace period for existing rentals currently not registered with the city, so those rentals could also be grandfathered in.
The city is now going through the painstaking steps to ensure Alamosans, particularly those in the short-term rental business, are aware and engaged in the process and have a say in any final proposal before the city council debates and votes on them later this year.
Other San Luis Valley towns:
Addressing short-term rentals has gained urgency due to the growing number of people looking for short-term rental properties when they visit a town and also because of a recent San Luis Valley housing assessment study which shows the housing needs of each community and, for Alamosa, the difficulty major employers are having to recruit employees with a tight and increasingly expensive housing market.
Existing short-term rentals
‘We were amazed at how many Airbnbs were in that community, and yet the locals are struggling to be able to afford to live there.’
DAWN Melgares, executive director of the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition which conducted the housing assessment study, said it’s important for communities to address their housing needs by looking at short-term rentals both as a way to preserve housing for residents but also to address the lack of hotels in a particular community, like Center, which is trying to attract tourists.
“So for instance, Crestone has found that they lost a lot of their affordable housing to the Airbnb market. We were amazed at how many Airbnbs were in that community, and yet the locals are struggling to be able to afford to live there,” Melgares said. “So their policy really went in and protected the housing for the locals while still allowing the tourism to come in like they want.
“The town of Center, I think we found one when we Googled them. However, they’re wanting to grow. And they don’t have a hotel or another resource if somebody was wanting to stay in their community overnight. We just held this housing forum (in Center), and yet everybody that came in from out of the area to help us, the architects, the engineers, we had to put them up in Monte Vista or Alamosa because they couldn’t stay in the community they were there to help because we couldn’t find an Airbnb, and there’s not a hotel there.
“So by putting these policies in place, we are both offering the opportunity to preserve the housing for the locals, but also bringing in some tourist dollars by allowing the ability to fill that short-term hotel need without actually bringing in a big corporate hotel.
“The other thing it does is it allows the jurisdiction to go into these websites and say, ‘We have a policy. These are the taxes that need to be collected. These are the rules within our policy.’ And then the websites like Airbnb and Vrbo can make sure that the money that’s being collected is actually going into the communities where the expenses are coming out of.”
The Alamosa plan
Alamosa’s initial draft plan spells out that the short-term rental policy would apply to houses for rent for a term of less than 30 days, and that owners are required to collect and remit lodging tax and sales tax for units rented, among other provisions.
City Manager Heather Brooks and Director of Development Services Rachel Baird briefed city council members on the proposed plan during an Oct. 20 work session.
Alamosa Airbnb rental
The city has had an increase in neighborhood complaints as the number of short-term rentals has increased, they said.
The proposal, Baird said, takes into consideration both investors who are meeting a demand in the market and the need for Alamosa to address its own housing shortage.
“We want to encourage the tourism industry while also providing protections for our housing stock,” Baird said.
Checkout sheet Harmon House