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In lieu of its regularly scheduled Tuesday meetings, North Bay City Council has instead called special committee and council meetings for Wednesday, beginning at 5:15 p.m.
As part of the special committee portion, a public meeting will be held to discuss short-term rentals and the new user fees the City of North Bay is seeking to associate with the practice. Any person may attend the public meeting and/or make written or oral presentations either in support or in opposition to the proposed zoning by-law amendment to define short-term rentals.
In its proposed zoning by-law update, the City of North Bay defines a short-term rental (STR) as "all or part of a dwelling unit used to provide sleeping accommodations for any rental period that is less than 28 days in exchange for payment," but this excludes bed and breakfasts, institutional tourist establishments, tourist establishments, tourist camping establishments, motels, resorts or similar commercial or institutional use.
The City will also seek to associate a host of fees with its proposed STR regulation.
"To offset the cost of providing services, municipalities have the authority under Section 391(1) of the Municipal Act to impose a fee or charge on individuals." The City "performed a costing analysis to determine the full cost of providing and upholding the by-law. The full cost recovery rates were then used as a benchmark against which new fees were established," per the staff report.
The proposed STR by-law calls for a $600 application fee and a $275 application renewal fee for hosts. These user fees include tasks that are defined for the average application, including receipt of application, review, processing, inspections, notices, orders, monitoring, communications, and inspections.
The appeal fee is $1,600. And, a stand-by fee will be calculated at the rate of $78 times the number of hours on stand-by. This fee is intended to be charged for the actual time spent in organizing, documenting and supervising work outside of the standard fees.
"The benchmarking of this by-law was conducted with the framework of local communities and municipalities of similar sizes to North Bay, when applicable," according to the report. For a comparative table of applicable fees, click here.
For more on the City of North Bay's short-term rentals proposal, see related: Short-term rentals will be focus of public meeting
STRs are divided into two sections: principal and non-principal. A principal dwelling unit short-term rental also serves as someone’s principal dwelling unit. Conversely, a non-principal dwelling unit short-term rental does not serve as someone’s principal dwelling unit.
A zoning by-law amendment will establish where STRs are permitted.
According to a City of North Bay staff report, "There are clear differences between a principal dwelling unit STR and a non-principal dwelling unit STR and therefore they should be held to different standards by using a zoning amendment as the primary regulatory tool. A principal dwelling unit STR is a form of home-sharing while a non-principal dwelling unit STR is considered a commercial use similar to a hotel."
For more on proposed zoning amendments, click here.
Short-term rentals are often brokered by companies such as Airbnb and VRBO that provide an online marketplace for accommodations meant for vacation rentals and tourism activities. The growth in popularity of these online hosting sites has northern Ontario municipalities seeking to regulate the practice and recover costs.
Two planning matters will also be discussed during the special committee meeting. For the full agenda, click here.
Notable items on the special council meeting agenda include a by-law to keep the moratorium on development charges in place until May 2023 and the presentation of the yearly report from the Dionne Quints Heritage Board.
