More yet to be done on bylaw to regulate short-term rentals in Essex

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A draft bylaw to better regulate short-term rental properties in Essex that was scheduled to be presented to council on Tuesday night was instead put on hold by administration for some more fine tuning.

The town in recent years has welcomed an influx of short-term vacation rental properties, such as Airbnbs, to bolster tourism. But an escalating number of residents, especially near lakefront areas in Colchester, have voiced frustration about how too many of them are nothing more than party houses causing havoc in their neighbourhood.

The town has scheduled a handful of open houses to gather feedback and concerns leading to the development of the bylaw. It is now scheduled to come back and be presented at the next council meeting on May 2.

“Administration last night indicated it was not ready to present to council at this time,” said Essex Mayor Richard Meloche on Wednesday.

“There were a lot of suggestions at the (open house) meeting we had on this two weeks ago. Administration wanted to do more research on some of the suggestions and whether they can fit into the bylaw and be appropriately monitored.”

During Tuesday’s meeting Coun. Jason Matyi also brought forward a notice of motion on the issue that will be discussed at the next meeting. It calls for any owner of a short-term rental property to either reside on the property — or at least live within 100 meters on another property.

“It does complicate things, so I don’t think it will be considered by council until the draft bylaw is presented,” Meloche said. “To me, it’s really out of context of the original intent of the bylaw. but it will be up to council whether they want to go for something like that.

“A lot of the Airbnbs (in Essex) operate without an attached homeowner on site and they are running just fine. There are other measures we can put in place where short-term rentals with absentee owners can be monitored.”

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