By John Francis,
Bruce Peninsula Press
At MNBP Council’s January 9, 2023 Meeting, Council received a Report from the Municipality’s Short-Term Accommodation Committee and Licencing Coordinator. That report recommends, among other things, capping the number of STA licences in the municipality at 350. The report can be found through the municipality’s website or through its communications portal letstalknbp.ca which is also hosting a discussion on the report and its recommendations. The deadline for comments is February 8.
To find the discussion, go to letstalknbp.ca and scroll down and click on “Public Comment Corner”, which offers links to three public consultation threads: Short-Term Accommodations, Parking (comments closed Feb 4) and Council Priorities (no end date posted for comments). The page also offers the Staff Report to Council for each of the threads. Note that the Short-Term Accommodations link on the municipality’s home page (northbrucepeninsula.ca) does not link to the current consultation although it does link to all the documentation from, and the final report on, the STA consultation process that took place between 2018 and 2021. The “Public Comment Corner” link on the municipal home page takes you to letstalknbp.ca
The 70-page Staff Report on STAs details the proposals Council will be debating, plus the rationale for the changes.
Some excerpts from that report:
“6.5 Only properties that are zoned R-1 and R-2 will be able to obtain a short-term accommodation Licence.
6.6 Any Class C STA will have a Holding Zone placed on the property. Should the property transfer owners the holding zone will be lifted and the STA will cease to operate.
6. 7 Any Licence issued pursuant to section 5.13 will have a Holding Zone placed on the property. Should the property transfer owners the holding zone will be lifted and the STA will cease to operate.
13.3 Where a complaint has been determined to be valid the Licensee shall pay to the Municipality a complaint investigation fee of $300.00. Failure to pay the fee shall be a contravention of the terms of the Licence and shall result in a revocation of the Licence.
…
A maximum of 350 Short-term Accommodation Licences will be issued by the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula. No new Licences will be issued until the number of Licenced Short-term Accommodations in the Municipality falls below 350, after which the number of Licenses shall not exceed 350.
To date there are 330 licenced Short-term Accommodations operating within the Municipality, with an estimated 330 Short-term Accommodations operating without a licence, this number is estimated based on the reports compiled by Harmari’s monitoring software. The 2021 Census profile of the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula compiled by Statistics Canada indicated that there are approximately 5101 dwellings within the Municipality. A limit of 350 Short-term Accommodations within the Municipality would represent approximately 7% of the total dwellings within the area.
The Committee and Licensing Coordinator is recommending a limit be imposed on the number of licenced Short-term Accommodations. The implementation of a limit on the number of Short-term Accommodations within the Municipality will facilitate balance between attracting tourism and promoting residency, enforcement of the Short-term Accommodation By-law and reinforce housing availability for permanent residents and long-term renters.
Once 350 valid Short-term Accommodation Licences have been issued by the Committee and Licensing Coordinator, Short-term Accommodation Applications will be closed and the link to the application website, Cloudpermit, will be removed from the website. Any individuals wanting to operate a Short-term Accommodation within the Municipality will submit an application for a spot on a Waitlist, similar to the Campground and Marina waitlists.
A policy will be brought to Council by the Committee and Licensing Coordinator outlining the procedure associated with the implementation of a Waitlist for a Short-term Accommodation Licence from the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula.”
As of the evening of Feb 5, there are three days left for comments to be added. At this moment there are 132 comments from 60 commenters. The vast majority of comments seem to come from STA owners, would-be STA owners, real estate investors and real estate professionals. With a few notable exceptions, the comment stream skews heavily towards disapproval of the proposed STA Bylaw amendments.
The proposed cap of 350 STA licences is mentioned (disapprovingly) in most comments. The restriction of STAs to R-zoned properties is also heavily criticized, as is the limitation on the number of people who can inhabit an STA — when the year-round resident nextdoor can have his whole extended family over, why should an STA be any different? The limitation to two people per bedroom receives a lot of criticism; many feel this is unfair to families with small children.
“It’s a free country, isn’t it?” is a sentiment that appears in many of the comments. Many commenters seem to believe that large numbers of MNBP homes and cottages have been daily rentals for decades.
Another frequently mentioned idea is that a reduction in STA availability will cause a corresponding increase in the number of day-trippers.
The 2018-2021 STA consultation process received somewhat more input from STA stakeholders (owners and renters/tenants) than from the rest of the ratepaying community. That consultation process showed a sharp divide in opinion on most aspects of STA regulation. For example, 90% of those not involved with STAs agreed with the intention of the (then proposed) STA bylaw, compared to less than half of STA operators and customers. The same general pattern was visible with regard to most aspects of STA regulation — fees and charges, licencing rules, capacity limits etc — the STA community opposed regulations; the broader community favoured them.
Why is there so little participation by those who favour STA regulations? As one resident summed it up (on condition of not being named): “You don’t want to be the person they’re all yelling at”.
2022 Parking Report
The 2022 Year-End Parking Report recommends status quo for next year for most areas. The biggest proposed change is the addition of attendants/enforcement personnel in a number of locations on busy weekends.
The report — and the public comments in response — can be seen on the letstalknbp.ca website as noted above. There were 22 comments by the Feb 4 deadline. The majority of them concerned the Gap road allowance property in Tobermory, but there were also a few comments about parking in Lion’s Head.
Council Priorities
The Council Prioritization Session Report is also posted at letstalknbp. There is no deadline for comments; 12 have been received as of Feb 5.
2023 Municipal Budget
MNBP’s 2023 budget is taking shape. Council held Special Meetings on January 9, 16 and 30 to go over it line by line with staff. The process is congenial and collaborative but painstaking.
The municipality’s Asset Management Plan was discussed briefly at the Jan 16 meeting. Mayor Milt McIver noted that MNBP has tens of millions of dollars worth of assets — roads, bridges, buildings, ditches, drains, streetlights and more — that all need upkeep and periodic replacement. The province forced municipalities to conduct an inventory a few years ago and to turn that into a plan for upkeep and renewal. Ontario Clean Water Agency, an arm’s-length crown corporation that acts as an infrastructure consultant, is handling that process for MNBP. Mayor McIver noted that the County is undergoing a parallel process in the same time frame. They are planning to optimize Asset Management over the next 15 years. But Mayor McIver noted that this is a really difficult thing to do — things are coming in at crazy prices. Especially bridges, he said — $10 and $13 million.
Public Works Manager Troy Cameron noted that the prices for contract snow plows have gone ‘way up’, so budgets have had to increase.
Responding to a question from Deputy Mayor Rod Anderson, Cameron explained that MNBP uses mainly sand on its roads in winter, with just enough salt to keep the sand from freezing. Sand is much cheaper than salt but it is also more efficient — it allows the trucks to move from paved to unpaved roads at will. (You can’t salt gravel roads.)
Council Remuneration came up at the Jan 30 meeting. As was reported to the previous Council last fall, MNBP’s Council members are paid significantly less than the average for comparable municipalities. The Mayor’s pay in particular is “off the bottom of the chart”. Staff will propose a more equitable pay scale for Council.
Fire Chief Jack Burt noted that his department will have some heavy expenses over the next year, especially for training. Four people went on an ice/water rescue course in January and the provincially mandated certifications are a big item this year.
Council Meetings Recorded
Under “Other Business” Councillor Aman Sohrab asked about progress on getting MNBP Council Meetings recorded and available online. “It started today,” responded CAO Van Mierlo-West.
