Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Board of Supervisors adopt short term rental resolution with a vote of 5-0

At the 3-11-14 Board of Supervisors meeting a resolution was before the board regarding short term rentals on Lake Tulloch.

The resolution was passed 5-0. To take effect in 60 days.

Following is a summary:




SUMMARY:
In April 2013, the Board of Supervisors adopted Chapter 20.20 Lake Tulloch Short Term Vacation
Rentals ordinance.
The ordinance established a process by which a land owner could obtain a short term vacation rental
Administrative Use Permit (AUP) to operate a vacation rental from property located within specified
boundaries of the Lake Tulloch region. During the hearing process, there was discussion regarding
the fee for obtaining a vacation rental AUP. At that time it was proposed to charge the existing
AUP application fee of $2033 based upon the staff tasks outlined in the ordinance and come
back with a new renewal fee based on an estimate of staff time for this specific type of AUP.
The Board expressed concerns with the high amount of the fee and based upon that, revisions were
made to the draft ordinance to eliminate the need for a staff site inspection and require the applicant
to submit documents such as a site plan, floor plan, etc. to be used for verification purposes.
This took a more stream lined approach and the Board was receptive to this proposal.
It was staff's initial intention to prepare a more comprehensive fee study update and include the
new vacation rental AUP in that effort. However, that process will take a considerable amount 
of time and with the spring/summer rental season approaching, there is a need to separate out
the establishment of this new fee from the comprehensive fee study effort.

In order to establish a new
vacation rental fee, as well as a renewal fee, staff took a detailed approach for calculating the
fees. Staff reviewedthe vacation rental ordinance and prepared a list of the necessary tasks that
would be performed by the Department to process a permit request from submittal to final determination. These steps were translated into the average staff time it would take to complete
eachtask. These tasks not only include processing time by the assigned planner, but also the  administrative tasks associated with project processing. Attachment 2 of this report includes allthose
tasks necessary for processing the permit and the average staff time. It is estimated that it will take
approximately 7 total staff hours at a cost of $429 to process the initial rental AUP and 3 staff hours
at acost of $217 to process a renewal. Furthermore, the proposed fees are for the permit only and would not cover any costs associated with inspection of a potential permit violation or public nuisance.
If a decision on a permit were appealed, there is a separate fee required for that process.