HomeMy Public PortalAboutPublic Comment Melanie Meharchand Darrah Johnston
From: Hilary Hobbs
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2020 8:09 AM
To: Truckee
Subject: FW: Input from Short-Term Rental Hosts on the STR Ordinance
Hilary Hobbs
Management Analyst
Town of Truckee
hhobbs@townoftruckee.com
Office: (530) 582-2914
From: Melanie Meharchand <mmeharchand@yahoo.com>
Sent:Thursday, September 10, 2020 10:56 PM
To: David Polivy<DPolivy@townoftruckee.com>;Tony Commendatore<TCommendatore@townoftruckee.com>;Jessica
Abrams<JAbrams@townoftruckee.com>;Anna Klovstad <AKlovstad@townoftruckee.com>; David Tirman
<DTirman@townoftruckee.com>; Dan Wilkins<DWilkins@townoftruckee.com>; Hilary Hobbs
<H Hobbs@townoftruckee.com>
Cc: Colleen Dalton <colleen@truckee.com>
Subject: Input from Short-Term Rental Hosts on the STR Ordinance
Mayor Dave, Councilmembers,Town staff and neighbors,
I'm Melanie Meharchand,homeowner and the independent host representative on Visit Truckee. Many independent hosts have
contacted me over the past weeks about the draft STR ordinance.
We know these last few months have had challenges.There are many people coming to town at a time when options are limited and
we're all under stress.The effects of what we're seeing are not only STR-related. Please know that the vast majority of STR
homeowners are responsible and highly committed to the Truckee community.
We would like the rules for home-based short-term rentals in Truckee to help reduce impacts on neighborhoods and to be equitable
with managing nuisances that could come up with anyone,be they full-time residents,owner-occupiers,long-term renters, or
friends/family staying at homes(not as renters).
Please further consider these points:
Discrimination against children older than 5
• If children were emotional support animals,you wouldn't be able to discriminate against them!
• In California,it is illegal for landlords to discriminate against families with children under 18.
• This hurts families,which are not the ones having parties.
Fire restrictions—Many hosts,like us,use our own homes regularly. We also rent long-term sometimes. Please make these
restrictions are only against the use of these items by short-tenn renters,not prohibitions against having them on the property:
• Gas fire pits—We have one built into our deck.These are easy to use safely. I am concerned that people will resort to ad hoc
fires if the restrictions here are too stringent.
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• Charcoal grills—Please don't require these to be removed,just restricted from use.We would like to use ours when we are
there,but can provide a gas grill for short-term renters.
• Defensible space—It's overreach to require STRs to do this and not LTRs or owner-occupiers.Make everyone do it,or leave
it as recommended.
2-night minimum rental
• This will disproportionately hurt Truckee resident homesharers who host people who come up to ski for one night mid-week.
• If this is intended to stop parties,one night stays are not the cause of all parties.
• Airbnb has already put a lot more restrictions into their system to stop parties,e.g.,restricting rentals to those over 25 years
of age.
• Larger houses that accommodate more people are a source of noise, so banning one-night stays at all sizes of homes aren't an
effective way of stopping parties.
• This standard takes enforcement to a whole different level,which is more involved and not worth the effort,because one-
night stays are not the sole cause of parties.
Parking
• Thanks for not requiring all onsite parking.That would disproportionately hurt Truckee resident homesharers.
• Please check the rest of the parking language,because,as written,it prohibits parking on the street anywhere in town.
Additional items to include
• In some areas,rather than having the fire department do inspections,they have a form that can be filled out by a licensed
contractor.This can help get inspections done quickly,as our fire department could be unavailable to inspect in a timely
manner at certain times of year.
• Complaints should be tracked against all categories of residents,including long-term renters,owner-occupiers,people staying
as non-paying guests in homes and second homeowners.That way we can have relevant data about the extent of violations by
category. It doesn't help to only track STRs,because that provides no context.
• If police are called out to the home for Town rules being broken,the guest should be fined,not the host
• Town can also send compliance violations/enforcement penalties to guests later if they break the rules.
• There should be penalties for neighbors who falsely complain against a home,because the consequences for hosts are very
severe.
Thank you for your consideration!
Melanie Meharchand
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