Short term Rentals (STRs)
This issue is probably the most contentious of any on-going item in Oro-Medonte, there are those who vehemently oppose, those who are strong supporters, and a large swath of individuals who are indifferent.
As I have come to understand it, under current Oro-Medonte By-law 97-95 ( https://www.oro-medonte.ca/Shared%20Documents/Zoning%20By-law.pdf) the following is how it’s written, right in the preamble:
Exert from Oro-Medonte 97-95 Bylaw
This is worth noting, because it’s saying that if the use is not “specifically permitted”, then it is in fact prohibited.
Let’s dig in a little deeper into what the permitted uses are for a residentially zoned lot:
They have specified a few differing uses, from ‘dwellings’ to ‘day nurseries’ to ‘residential care homes' in the definition of each of those specific uses, nothing is even tangentially related to Short term rentals. So I’m remembering, the first clause I read stated that any use that is not specifically permitted… is in fact prohibited. But I still wanted to understand if there were any other clauses that might be of any further importance.
Section 5.24 of the by law (2015-192) specifies specific prohibited uses in ANY Zone. Here we find section h) which states: Obnoxious uses. Hmm… not sure what would constitute an obnoxious use so let’s get the definition according to the by law:
“Obnoxious use means a use which, from its nature or operation, creates a nuisance or is liable to become a nuisance or offensive by the creation of noise or vibration… cont’d.”
Now, I am not a lawyer, so I could not I state whether this is a solid legal argument. However, I would venture to say that not only does the by-law leave out short term rentals entirely, outside of bed and breakfasts - which require a special application and review, but it’s important to note that they couldn’t possibly have included short term rentals, because they didn’t become a main-stream income generating commercial enterprise until the launch of platforms like AirBnB or VRBO in 2008. Therefore, in my opinion they would default to a ‘non-permitted use’,
The current council has spent a large amount of our tax dollars on legal fees in order to appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) to help solve this issues. But as you may be aware, we currently do not have any new avenues to weed out the disruptive, obnoxious, short term rentals in our community. But I do find it interesting that the OLT did side with Oro-Medonte in stating that STRs are in fact a commercial use (https://www.orilliamatters.com/local-news/olt-ruling-supports-view-that-strs-are-commercial-group-says-5777619)
Our original by-laws have specified, permitted uses in our residential zones none of which are short term rentals / commercial accommodations or any other term you can think of to describe them.
There are other municipalities who are in a similar position to us in terms that their by-laws were written to specifically state that non specified uses are prohibited. They have varying ways of enforcing those by-laws to ensure STRs are either not operating in a disruptive manner, or are not operating at all:
Innisfil: extended the availability of by-law enforcement who are able to respond to complaints, specifically in the summer hours (increasing availability from 11PM to 2AM on Fri-Sun during the peak summer months. (https://innisfil.ca/en/news/town-of-innisfil-council-addresses-short-term-accommodations.aspx)
Goderich: has taken a different tact and enacted some, in my opinion, quite punitive fines “(a) On a first conviction to a fine of not more than $25,000.00; and (b) On a subsequent conviction to a fine or not more than $10,000 for each day or part thereof upon which the contravention has continued after the day on which the person was first convicted” (https://www.goderich.ca/en/town-hall-and-services/by-laws.aspx#)
It is my opinion, that if the residents we take an oath to protect want to ensure the enjoyment of their properties is not diminished, and, do not want any sort of STRs, we have options at our disposal to ensure the will of the people is looked after.
HOPE YOU GOT OUT TO THE ORO WORLD’S FAIR THIS WEEKEND!