SEGUIN COUNCIL, STAFF NOT SEEING EYE-TO-EYE ON SHORT-TERM RENTALS

The licensing of short-term rentals remains off the table in Seguin following a March 13 special meeting of council.

While council turned down staff's recommendation to license short-term rentals, work continues to update what are considered quality-of-life bylaws, such as rules governing noise and burning, and keep an eye on how other townships are tackling the issue.

Seguin has been grappling with short-term rentals for six years, in a process that has included two surveys of the community and a 2021 ultimatum reminding property owners rentals aren't allowed under the township's 2006 zoning bylaw.

Seguin's lawyer no longer believes the township's current ban would be upheld in court, said Mayor Ann MacDiarmid.

"Our solicitor had advised that if we have passed a zoning bylaw amendment to prohibit them anywhere in Seguin and everywhere, there would still be legal nonconforming rights for any of the existing ones .... anywhere around 250 short-term rentals, and those are just the ones we can find," said director of planning Taylor Elgie. Here is some of what was said: 1. "I want to stress to all of the councillors that we must make a decision this afternoon. The issue of short-term rentals has been on the council agenda since 2017 and our ratepayers expect us to make a decision to move forward. The status quo is simply no longer acceptable, enforceable or helping to build our community." — MacDiarmid

2. "I was against short-term rentals before I even became a councillor ... short-term to me, where a lot of problems occur, is rentals that are seven days or less — the environment first, quality of life and water quality has no meaning to weekend renters .... In a few years, if the bylaws are effective, then maybe look at introducing a licence for short-term rentals." — Coun. Ken Adams

3. "I don't think at the present time we really know what the legal

situation is because there have been so many divergent legal opinions in hearings ... there was a (provincial land use) hearing that indicated that short-term rentals were a commercial land use ... in that case, it wouldn't fit within the zoning for cottage areas. " — Coun. Mario Buszynski

4. "(While campaigning,) there wasn't a single person in favour of the licensing system ... I've reviewed a number of Ontario Land Tribunal decisions and consistently (they) are recognizing municipalities' right to zone their waterfront properties as residential ... (and) recognized that part of the cottage culture is the occasional one- to twoweek rental of your property, and people should be able to do that .... without having to put them under a blanket licensing program." — Coun. Greg Getty

5. "Lake of Bays introduced a short-term rental policy ... basically a rezoning document ... My suggestion would be to reach out and track how they are doing this year and in the interim ... we need to put some teeth in our qualityof-life bylaws in which the owner's charged, the occupant is charged ... we should vigorously prosecute them under our existing zoning." — Coun. Terry Fellner

6. "I think we need to strengthen bylaws for quality of life and strengthen bylaws to support zoning ... Opening up the entire township to license (shortterm rentals) ... we need a specific bylaw for (shortterm rentals) only, as we do for noise, for dogs, for fireworks — not licensing." — Coun. Ted Collins

7. "I have problems with people who buy for investment ... because your neighbour bought their property to enjoy it and you can't enjoy it with 17 new people every week ... you can put limits on the number of people, on the number of days that are rented. The way things are now, we can't limit them, (we can) tell them this isn't allowed ... we've done it twice since I've been on council; luckily we came out OK, but it is still costly." — Coun. Gail Finnson