The moratorium on short-term rental licenses in neighborhood overlay zones of unincorporated Summit County is nearing its end. While considering percentage caps on the number of licenses by basin, the Summit Board of County Commissioners is also considering, due to enforcement difficulty, lifting any nightly limits for licensees. That’s unlimited nights coming to a short-term rentals near you!

Given that each basin is already above the proposed caps, that means those current licenses are “in like Flynn” and will have captured the market on the short-term rentals in your neighborhood, thus pushing demand to your short-term rental neighbor!  

Short-term rentals with unlimited nights are business ventures and have no place in neighborhood zones! One-hundred and thirty-five nights is too many. That’s two nights every weekend plus 31 additional nights! One-hundred nights is still too many. That’s every weekend, except for two. In that case, I’m just left wondering which two weekends the neighbors will get a vacation from the vacationers. 

To me, as a neighbor to multiple short-term rentals, 50 nights would be more than fair, taking away the business incentive, yet still allowing homeowners approximately every other weekend to short-term rent. When I hear that a property can’t pencil at that many nights, I have to ask, are we trying to subsidize people’s real estate investment or are we trying to preserve residential neighborhoods and communities? Even with the ability to short-term rent every other weekend, we are teetering on subsidizing second homeowners’ investments versus incentivizing long-term occupancy. 

To remove nightly limits because they are difficult to enforce begs the question: should we remove speed limits because they are equally difficult to enforce? If you are also concerned about unlimited nights for short-term rentals in residential neighborhood zones, reach out to the Board of County Commissioners and the Countywide Planning Commission and voice your concerns.