STRs were front and center during Town Board ‘Plan’ presentation

Like the Planning Board on Tuesday, on Thursday night, the Town Board got a look at the Comprehensive Community Plan – a plan that the state wants all municipalities with zoning to adopt by 2022.

It’s a policy document, whose elements can be used to produce regulations to guide the town the next 10-20 years, but Town Manager Josh Ward reminded the board that everything in the plan doesn’t have to be implemented.

Presenter Jake Petrosky, who has been hands-on since the start of the project a year ago, started explaining the vision of Highlands, which is the jumping off place for everything in the plan.

“Highlands is a vibrant and scenic mountain community founded on the beauty of the plateau’s natural environment, the uniqueness of its village character, and the richness of the area’s culture and history,” he read.

Future needs and recommendations were categorized and include Land Use for residential housing, businesses and open spaces; Recreation and Natural Resources; Downtown and Tourism, in regards to parking, sidewalks, and street improvements; with the last category Infrastructure & Public Services.

Recommendations in each category were then tiered based on importance – short-term, medium-term and long-term – meaning when the town might consider implementing suggestions as policies or regulations.

For instance in the Downtown and Tourism category #1 was to Maintain and enhance Highlands’ small-town feel/village character; #2 was to Improve pedestrian facilities, lighting and wayfinding; and #3 was to manage public parking and study opportunities for increased on-street and off-street public parking.

As during the Planning Board session, one issue that was discussed at length was Short-term Rentals (STRs).

Petrosky said that 62% of Community Plan survey respondents said they had concerns about STRs and 61% of business respondents said more hotels or rentals downtown would help their businesses.

During the public comment period of the Town Board meeting, Bob Irwin, a member of the Dog Mountain subdivision and a neighbor of Tom Coley who spoke about STRs at the Planning Board meeting, read a statement urging the Town Board to do something about the freewheeling STR industry in Highlands.

“On Dog Mountain, with under 30 homes total, we currently have three houses now advertised for short-term rental. The ad for one of those says it is an 1,100 sq. ft. home that sleeps six. Another says it sleeps 10 in three bedrooms. Yet another says it has four bedrooms and three baths, 10 beds, and sleeps 12. We expect three more houses on our road to be added to the short-term rental list very shortly. 

“We’ve already had problems with noise, traffic and garbage due to these rentals and unfortunately we expect more. 

“Several of these short-term rental homes on Dog Mountain and elsewhere in Highlands are owned by people with no personal connection to Highlands, who never visit them, let alone live in them – people who hold them simply as investments, managed for them as a business by other people,” said Irwin.

He later questioned why such ventures, which he said are clearly businesses, are allowed in the R1 district.

“The tide of short-term rentals, if it is not reined in, will lead to neighborhoods being hollowed out, without a critical mass of owner-occupants to sustain them. 

“I ask you to think carefully about the kind of Highlands you want to have in five years; one that is just a staging area for an endless stream of one-night stands or a community that is sustained by residents year-round and seasonally who have a real personal commitment to it. Don’t wait to see how other cities’ litigation turns out. Don’t wait to see what the state legislature might do. Please take action yourselves to protect Highlands and take it now,” he said.

Town Manager Josh Ward said as a municipality, Highlands has been watching month-to-month what the legislature is doing because it must follow state statutes.

Petrosky noted, as per the North Carolina Vacation Rental Act (2020), requiring rentals to register is unlawful; that local governments cannot levy a tax or fee on residential rental property that is not levied against other commercial and residential properties; and the State has also ruled that limiting measures, such as lotteries for STR permits, are not valid.

However, he said immediate available options include an optional STR registry and a no-fee permit; the continued enforcement of noise and trash ordinances; education and an outreach effort to rental owners that emphasize rules and requirements, and to encourage HOAs to regulate STRs in their neighborhoods.

In the future he suggested using zoning ordinances to regulate STRs in regards to location, length of stay (i.e. 2, 3, 5 or 7 nights) and to differentiate whether the home is a full-time STR or also lived in by the owner.

Since changing zoning ordinances is a lengthy process, those future recommendations can’t be enforced immediately as an “immediate available option.”

Petrosky did say if STRs are something that need to be put on the short-term list of things to do, it could be done before the final plan comes back for adoption.

Therefore, considering what the Planning Board heard from Tom Coley, who also lives on Dog Mountain and who echoed Irwin, the Town Board decided to move the STR problem to the forefront of Community Plan Recommendation list.

“I think the feedback concerning Short-term Rentals indicates this is an immediate problem we need to address,” said Mayor Pat Taylor.

With that, Petrosky moved STRs up to the top. 

Later, Mayor Taylor said Bob Irwin had made some very good points and though HOAs are a community’s first line of defense, many R1 areas in town aren’t separate neighborhoods where HOAs would work so the town needs to address the problem.

By Kim Lewicki, Highlands Newspaper