Commission mulls adding new parking regulations for short-term rentals

Carbon County commissioners are weighing measures to ensure property owners who use their dwellings as short-term rentals or Airbnbs, also offer adequate parking.
During a public hearing July 3 regarding proposed changes to the county’s general zoning requirements, commissioners debated the best ways to make property owners aware of their responsibility to offer adequate parking.
Todd Thorne, the county’s director of building, zoning and planning, told commissioners that as part of proposed changes to Section 3 of county zoning regulations, his office included new parking rules.
“We never had outlined parking regulations that I was able to find. So we adopted a set and included them in Section 3,” he said.
The addition of new parking rules were a “substantial” change to existing codes.
Christian Bryner, the county’s civil attorney, said there were existing parking regulations within another section of code, but they didn’t specifically deal with short term rentals or Airbnbs, which commissioners said concerned them.
“We don’t have specific regulations governing on-street parking, but we do have off-street parking regulations that are broken down by commercial use as well as some general off-street parking requirements,” Bryner said.
Commissioner Jae Potter was first to say the lack of clear parking guidelines for short term rentals was something that needed to be addressed.
“In that particular section, one thing I did find lacking is, and maybe we should do this after the hearing, you tell me, is with the growth of Airbnbs and some of those kind of private homes that are renting out, how do we require parking that’s adequate for the number of people they may say can dwell there? That was one hole I did see,” he asked.
Bryner said current rules allow any property owner in Carbon County to offer dwellings of any size as short term rentals. He said he is worried that if the county rushes to put new parking rules in place without considering their impact on owners of smaller dwellings, then the rules might not withstand a court challenge.
“The question is whether we want to have any additional requirements for short term rentals than we have for standard dwellings.,” Bryner said. “I see a little bit of a problem there if you are telling people that they can’t have a short-term rental unit just because they don’t have more parking spaces than the average dwelling unit.”
Thorne told commissioners he believed the best way to enforce any new county parking standards for rentals would be through the county’s business licensing.
Potter agreed that any new parking regulations could be enforced that way, but also he said he wanted a structure in place so that people who sought building permits to build short term rentals understood there would be different parking rules from what is in place for regular single-family homes.
“I agree that the business licensing is a great place to put that, but I also believe that anyone seeking a building permit or looking at these kinds of regulations that there should be something there that addresses the what if,” he said. “And of course the licensing portion of it can come through. Because if that’s their intent, they may not put that forward at the beginning of the process. But they better realize that there are going to be some parking requirements.”
Commission Chair Jake Mellor mused whether the building and zoning department could peruse permits for clues as to a property owners’ intent to build rentals and then notice that person through the clerk’s office that they may face different rules if their construction is for short term rentals.
“I wonder if we don’t also get beyond what is realistic to police at that point,” he said.
After closing the public hearing and taking comments, Potter made a motion to table the discussion for a later meeting, to give commissioners more time to review parking and other proposed changes to the zoning codes.