Planning board OK's short-term rental regs in Canyon
A car drives down a road near West Glacier as Longfellow Peak and Paul Bunyan’s Cabin loom behind it in this file photo.
Canyon property owners may soon have to meet new requirements to host short-term rentals in single-occupancy dwellings.
At their meeting earlier this month, the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved a recommendation to the county commissioners to amend the requirements after receiving a request from the Middle Canyon Land Use Advisory Committee to do so.
If adopted, the new requirements would mirror what the county already adopted for landowners outside of the Middle Canyon in August of 2017; with the exception that those wishing to use single-occupancy dwellings as short-term rentals in the Canyon must notify all adjacent landowners within 150 feet.
Under the new requirements, occupancy limits for short-term rentals is dependent on sewer capacity and no additional signage would be required for the property. A name and contact number of someone who can be reached 24 hours a day must be provided for the property, usually the landowner or a property management company. The owner would also have to obtain a public accommodation license from the state and collect and remit accommodation tax.
“It is my speculation that very few of the properties that are being utilized for short-term rentals have valid public accommodation licenses,” county planning director Mark Mussman told the board.
Landowners would have to pay a one-time minor land use fee of $250 and $75 for access to the certified mailing list to notify the surrounding landowners of the short-term rental.
“It still irritates me that these people have to pay the state and then they have to pay the county. I wish they could just pay the county or pay the state and have them give the money to the county,” board member Ron Schlegel said. “To me, it’s like double dipping, and that bothers me a lot.”
The matter now goes onto county commissioners.