North Kawartha will be hosting an open house for the public next month in an effort to gain perspective and understand resident’s thoughts on how the municipality should govern Short Term Rental (STR) properties.
At a council meeting in March, the Short Term Rental Advisory Committee presented council with recommendations and information on STRs in North Kawartha.
Back in 2023, North Kawartha formed the Short Term Rental committee with a mandate to review and recommend action, but not ban, STRs in North Kawartha.
The committee then sent out a survey in mid-2024 to North Kawartha residents to get a better understanding of the community’s views, concerns and opinions regarding STRs within the township.
With 500 responses, the committee was able to compile the results and recommend actionable steps to council to improve issues regarding STRs within North Kawartha.
The survey asked if residents thought STRs were a problem within the township. The results were pretty evenly split with 49.82 per cent (279) of respondents saying yes, and 50.18 per cent (281) saying no.
The survey also asked if STRs have a positive or negative impact on the enjoyment of the area and local properties.
Nearly half of respondents said that it had a negative impact (47.86 per cent) while 37 per cent said it had no impact, and almost 15 per cent said it had a positive impact.
In addition to data collected through the survey, the committee heard from lake associations and township staff from many departments including: Building/Bylaw, Fire and Emergency Services, Waste Management, Economic Development, Planning, and Administration that provided insight and information to issues regarding STRs.
Through the committee’s research, they were able to provide a six step plan to improve nuisance complaints and by-law infractions caused by STRs.
The recommendations included:
1. Educations. The committee, through their report to council, stated that property owners may be unaware of bylaws and potential infractions and that many residents are frustrated with the current complaints process to address bylaw infractions. The committee suggested utilizing the “Good Neighbour Guide” that was developed and released last summer to educate both renters and owners of the bylaws governing activities of both groups. The complaints process was also recently updated for a more transparent and simplified process that now allows for the upload photos or documents regarding the complaint.
2. Enhanced bylaw and pro-active enforcement for existing bylaws using existing systems and processes. The report said the current approach for following up on complaints is unnecessarily restrictive. They suggested staff undertake paper audits of suspect properties where properties appear to be solely rentals without the owner ever being present, or where the capacity as advertised appears to exceed the building permit/septic design for the dwelling.
3. Implement a 24/7 reporting and response system. The committee suggested to council:
• Establishment of an online bylaw complaint reporting tool that can be accessed 7/24 by the public.
• Establishment of a telephone line available 7/24 for bylaw complaints to be submitted.
• Follow up on all non-anonymized complaints regardless of investigative outcome.
• Consider the use of digital evidence for launching investigations.
4. Tracking, Follow Up, and Outcome Measurement. The committee’s report said that a tracking system is necessary to inform the decision whether to implement more aggressive measures including registration and/or licensing. They recommended a central logging system to track all bylaw complaints with the possible exception of building bylaw issues. All complaints should be logged including formal, anonymous, and casual. Metrics would include:
• Number of bylaw complaints logged (formal, anonymous, and casual).
• Number of complaints by individual bylaw.
• Number of bylaw complaints open, investigated, and closed.
• Number of “ghost hotels” operating publicly outside of capacity/septic rules.
5. Implement Administrative Monetary Penalties to replace the use of the Provincial Offenses Instruments. Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) approach can support achieving compliance is a simplified ticketing process and replaces lawyers, judges, and the courts with a hearing officer. The Committee recommended that AMPs should be established for all current bylaws and be progressive, with fines increasing for multiple occurrences. Implementation to be informed by the current Peterborough County level working group.
6. Escalation to Registration and Licensing if Needed. The Committee recommended, based upon the outcomes of Stage 4 evaluating outcomes in 2028 and if STR issues have not been adequately resolved, proceed with a Council recommendation to Registration. Registration would be a mainly administrative process where the STR would register with North Kawartha and agree to understand and comply with bylaws. Minimum night requirements (seven) and a responsive responsible person (available within 60 minutes of a complaint) would be part of both registration and licensing.
The committee report did state that there is about a 60 per cent participation rate for voluntary registration of STRs. They also said that if the issue persists or escalates, moving to a licensing regime would be the next step, which is more commercial and onerous, requiring an administration, inspection, and review regime unlike any program currently administered by the Township.
In an email to the Herald, Colin McLellan who sits on the STR committee said that while there were very few official STR complaints(about 6 complaints in total), the unofficial number through casual conversation is much higher.
McLellan said, “Suggestions to modernize/streamline complaints process are included in the committee’s report to council. As a member of Council I have received more than 6 individual complaints so I am certain that number is not indicative of the number of people with frustrations with short term rentals. The survey we completed gave a bit of a clearer picture but is not appropriate to draw an estimate from.”
During the council meeting deputy mayor Jim Whalen said that the education portion of the committees report would be the most important part.
McLellan said that he agreed education was important stating that most of the activities being complained about were already illegal, so the committee chose to focus on reporting mechanisms.
It was noted that the good neighbour guide would be instrumental in this endeavour.
Whalen moved the recommendation by township staff to receive the STR Advisory Committee’s recommendations to Council and further that Council schedule a Public Open House to be held on in May to receive public comments on the recommendations.
The motion was seconded by Jim O’Shea and was approved.
The open house is set for May 23, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the North Kawartha Community Centre.
