By John Francis
At a Special Licencing Appeal Committee Meeting on September 9, MNBP Council voted to deny an appeal by the owners of an STA at 109 Spry Shore Road — they suspended the STA licence for a period of one year, beginning that day.
Council has heard a lot about this property over the last year and a half.
There were complaints to Bylaw Enforcement, complaints to the Fire Department, many letters to Council and even a delegation to Council (May 27, 2024. You can see the supporting materials in that Meeting’s Agenda, online; you can watch it on MNBP’s YouTube channel.)
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The owner and the property manager also appeared as a delegation to Council on June 10, 2024 to contest the first delegation’s claims. (See the Agenda for that Meeting and watch it on YouTube.)
An excerpt from their presentation:
“Firstly, 109 Spry Shore Road is not just any vacation rental; it is an Airbnb Guest Favourite, a distinction awarded to only 5% of Airbnb properties. Haseeb, the owner, is a SuperHost, a status that highlights our commitment to providing excellent service and maintaining high standards. The property is also a PremierHost property on VRBO, a similar accolade. This property has received numerous positive reviews from Guests welcomed to our community from all over the world,”
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Yet the residents of Spry Shore Road describe this property as a nightmare neighbour. How could both these things be true? Doug and Colleen Hubble explain it perfectly in a letter to Council (Agenda, September 23, 2024). Here is an excerpt:
“Now, don’t get me wrong, most renters are fine. It’s just the same routine over and over, like Groundhog Day: the slow crawl on the gravel, doors slamming, “Wow! This place is beautiful, come and look at the lake!” Loud yells and kids screaming (just having fun). The car arrives with a beep beep, followed by more yells and screams of welcome. The second car arrives, more screams and beep beeps. The first night at the fire is filled with a party, kids enjoying the lake, the wine flows, and conversations grow a few octaves louder. They shut it down about midnight, and it all starts over again the next day. The dads are in “Dad mode,” yelling loudly, going full tilt, usually out early with the kids. The drinks flow, the speaker plays all the hits, and they’re having fun. There are always 8 or 10 people, making an $800-per-night rental more affordable that way. Cars come and go at all hours, and there’s always a stranger next door.”
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Three complaints and your licence is revoked — that’s the rule.
But one of the threads that runs through all the complaints is: how do you register a complaint?
MNBP doesn’t really have a protocol for that. Neighbours of 109 Spry Shore Road wonder why none of their complaints seem to make any difference. It’s like those things never happened.
If a bunch of guests at an STA make a racket that lasts into the wee hours and nobody calls the police. Then no complaint is filed and it never happened, did it?
You might have sent an email to Bylaw Enforcement but basically, if they didn’t see the infraction, it didn’t happen.
If you phone the property manager at midnight and he comes over at 12:30 and gets the guests to quiet down, then no complaint is filed and that never happened either, did it?
Most illegal fireworks displays only go on for ten or fifteen minutes, not nearly long enough for anybody to respond to them. So no complaint is filed and it’s as if they never happened.
If the guests from the STA two lots down from you are fishing off your dock and you explain that it’s private property and they leave — well as far as the complaints register is concerned, that never happened, did it?
You get the idea.
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A letter from Jack and Patty Parker in the September 23 Agenda suggests that: “The class C designation should be removed from the bylaw and existing class C licenses should be revoked. A class C short term accommodation is in fact a commercial resort motel and as such should be controlled or allowed to exist subject to existing commercial bylaws, zoning, provincial laws etc. Unlike commercial motels and hotels, these class C boutique motels/ resort hotels exist and operate without on-site managers/ owners and when afterhours problems arise such as noise levels, fireworks, garbage problems, fire ban infractions etc., they cannot be prevented in the first place or resolved in a timely fashion without having undue negative effects to the neighboring residential properties.”
