City continues vacation rental discussions

By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff

The Sandpoint City Council is taking its time in reshaping its vacation rental policies, continuing the discussion to its Oct. 18 meeting.

An effort to bring city vacation rental regulations up to date with state law, the proposed changes to short-term rental policies aim to provide flexibility for homeowners marketing to tourists. However, they must also provide protections to ensure neighborhood integrity and peace. The issue is magnified by the short-term nature of vacation rentals, which some homeowners say attract noisy parties and disrupt the formation of neighborhood communities. Property owners at the Wednesday meeting were particularly concerned by a lack of regulation limiting the density of vacation rentals in a given area.

According to Sandpoint City Planner Aaron Qualls, council members should aim to have an action finalized by early November. As whatever changes the council approves will go into effect on Jan. 1, this will give the city time to notify homeowners of the new policies.

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.