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Home My Public Portal AboutPublic Comment Elizabeth Cooke Darrah Johnston From: Town of Truckee, CA <webmaster@townoftruckee.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 1:51 PM To: Truckee; Hilary Hobbs Subject: *NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form for Short-Term Vacation Rental Ordinance and Permit Program Public Comment Form for Short-Term Vacation Rental Ordinance and Permit Program Submission#: 530289 IP Address: 75.111.71.136 Submission Date: 09/08/2020 1:51 Survey Time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying"*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Name Elizabeth Cooke Email lizintruckee@aim.com Phone (optional) 5305509337 Public Comment see attachment lf your comment exceeds 2000 characters, please use the attachment function below to attach your comment in a separate document. Attachment STIR comments E Cooke 9-20.docx Please ensure that you enter your email address in the box below and click the SUBMIT button to receive a copy of your submitted responses for Public Comment. Thank you, Town of Truckee This is an automated message generated by the Vision Content Management SystemTM.Please do not reply directly to this email. 1 I live near STRs and own a STR at Donner Lake. I have lived in Truckee since 1996. As the years have gone by, the slow shoulder season has gotten shorter every year. I don't think that you can move to or live in a town like Truckee without expecting visitors to impact daily life. While I don't own a small business, many Truckee residents depend on visitors for their businesses to thrive. These visitors would not be able to be in Truckee without the existence of STRs. I have listened to the Truckee town council meeting that addressed the STRs last month and read many of the comments in the initial meeting and related to the proposed STR ordinance. In general, most residents want the noise, trash, and general nuisance caused by STRs to be stopped. Reading through the proposed ordinance, I don't think that the proposed ordinance will be able to stop many of residents' complaints from occurring. Most of the provisions in the ordinance cover areas that are already covered in the Truckee municipal code. As I looked through the ordinance, my STR already meets most of the standards proposed. I think that most responsible operators will find that they are already in compliance as well. A one-size-fits all approach to regulation will not be effective and will create increased financial burdens. As a STR operator, I am already paying 10% tourism tax, plus another 2% to the Truckee tourism board. If Truckee residents are already upset about the increased numbers of visitors, why is the tourism board promoting Truckee as a vacation destination? 5.02.060, section E No duty to enforce. I'm not sure what the point of the ordinance is if there is no duty for the town to enforce. We will be creating more regulation that is not enforced. 5.02.040 section E Trash collection. Two trash cans per STR plus recycling will be required. My STR is 1000ft2. The usual guest count is 4-6 people. On average, 1 kitchen size trash bag is produced per week. The trash can number should be related to square footage of the STR or number of occupants. Bear boxes will be required. While I think bear boxes are a good idea, in the winter they will not work unless someone is shoveling them out. Additionally, if you live in a non- conforming neighborhood, such as Donner Lake, there is often no place to put them near the street. Recycling cans do not fit in the bear boxes. I see just as many recycling cans turned over by wildlife as trash cans. An affidavit to not leave trash out overnight should be an option. 5.02.030 section C, 5 Maximum occupancy. All people staying at STRs should count as people regardless of age. Two people per bedroom plus an extra 2 guests should cover young children. Would you want 3 couples with several kids each staying in a 3 bedroom house? No. This defeats the purpose of the ordinance. 5.02.030 section D Term and scope of certificate. There should be no registration fee for the transient occupancy certificate. To increase compliance, do not charge extra money to register. The 10% TOT should already be covering STR ordinance compliance. Every time my STR is rented, I pay on average $90-200 in TOT taxes. Additionally, Truckee requires me to pay TOT tax for all money paid to me by visitors including cleaning fees. TOT should only be applied to rent paid. 5.02.060 section BA 3 violations = 12 month revocation. While there needs to be penalties to increase compliance, there is no information about how citations will be given. Will it be a he-said/she- said between neighbors? If a resident wants to get rid of a STIR, she could constantly submit complaints in an effort to produce citations. Twelve month revocation of certificate could end up costing the operator thousands of dollars over the course of a year-long suspension. While I understand that this would be applied in the worst cases, it seems a bit extreme and will possibly cause non-compliance with the program in general. I appreciate the Truckee town council's diligent work during the COVID-19 pandemic and their willingness to listen to resident's concerns. Elizabeth Cooke