BRIGHTON SHORT TERM RENTAL SUB COMMITTEE

BRIGHTON SHORT TERM RENTAL SUB COMMITTEE
                      MEETING Minutes
                            Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 @ 3:00pm
                      *Approved at the Town Council Meeting on March 8th, 2021

ATTENDANCE
Barbara Cameron, Jenna Malone, Jeff Bossard, Carolyn Keigley, Carole McCalla, Polly McLean, Deborah
Garner, Tiffany Bork, Kara John, Doug Fry, Chad Smith, Steve Szemerey, Tyler

PUBLIC INPUT
Written Comment provided in advance
    1) Requiring in-person check-in
Requiring hosts to check-in their guests in person would be a very significant and costly burden to us
and many others who rent their own places. It could also be inconvenient for guests who may arrive at
odd hours. CDC, Airbnb, and others encourage hosts to limit their contact with guests. Communication
before booking and before arrival is much more important. And communication during the visit also
helps. Posting the rules inside the home is a much more reasonable approach to encouraging guests to
comply with the rules. but you would substantially increase the cost of doing business for at least some
of us if you required in-person check-in.
Thanks,
Mark

    2) Comments to be read at Short Term Rental Subcommittee meeting.
I have been a Silver Fork resident for several years. We have two kids who run and play in the yard and
neighborhood. We are unfortunately surrounded by two short term rentals with Kendal and Mark
Brinton's place on either side. I have three main concerns: 1. appropriate car/tires 2. noise 3. fire
danger (summer)

I have several safety concerns for my children and neighbors. For one the streets are icy and snow
covered and it is easy for cars to become stuck. Last week alone, there were three cars stuck trying to
enter/exit one short term rental. One of those cars was a cleaning company that is there frequently but
does not have a car appropriate for the conditions. I feel like short term rental owners say they care
about the cars/tires their renters bring into the canyon, however that is hard to believe if they hire
cleaning companies, who will be up multiple times a week in some cases and don't care that they don't
have appropriate tires. That is inconsistent.

I would feel a lot better if there was a host who needed to meet the visitors coming to stay at the
cabin. It could be at the mouth of the canyon or up in Silver Fork and to check out their car and remind
them that it is a community with year round neighbors, kids, pets, and speed limits.

While I was hoping that we would be able to work with each other as neighbors I was disheartened to
receive an email from a neighbor that sounded more like a businessman. We will no longer be handing
things from one neighbor to another but instead will be using Granicus to document all road, safety,
noise, and other complaints and building a case.

Saying all of this, I love Silver Fork. I know that nothing can stay the same forever but we need to find a
way for the people who live here to still love and enjoy being in their homes. If we give it all away to
rental properties there will be nothing left for us.
Eli Lovett

     3) Dear Brighton Short Term Rental committee,
I truly care how renting out our cabin affects our neighborhood. I’ve traded emails with a concerned
neighbor who is opposed to short-term rentals, which prompted me to share some thoughts with you.
Limiting rental nights
One of our guests and the person cleaning our cabin recently got stuck on the roads near our cabin. I
know that residents concerned about short term rentals have pointed to people connected with the
rentals who get stuck as one of the reasons to restrict the rentals. Limiting short-term rentals to 120
nights per year would not end visits from guests to rentals during the winter. If anything, that would
intensify renting during that time when there’s the highest demand and great concern about visitors.

Recently we got a reservation from the parents of a resident that lives a short distance from us in Silver
Fork. The reservation is for an off time that’s less expensive and available because we don’t have to
limit (yet) the number of days we rent the cabin. And this isn’t the first time we’ve had reservations
from family members of other residents of the community. I believe this is because we offer a nice
place to stay at a reasonable rate when there’s less demand.

And a couple of days ago a family from Ogden reserved our cabin, again for the off season, to celebrate
their daughter’s 11th birthday. I made sure to clarify that we do not host special events where people
outside the family are invited. They confirmed that only their family of six will be coming. I doubt that
this is the type of stay that the town wants to curtail. But these are the visits that we won’t be able to
host if the number of rental nights is restricted.

We have had people return for their second, third, and even fourth visit. We work hard to give our
guests a positive experience. We are motivated by the joy we get from sharing our cabin and amazing
Big Cottonwood Canyon with our guests.

We also are motivated by the opportunity to cover the costs of our cabin. We just finished adding up
our expenses and income for 2020. Not counting depreciation and tax adjustments and not counting
any expense for our time, just counting actual out-of-pocket expenses for last year against the actual
income from renting it out (for about 180 days, partly because of Covid) we had a net income of just
over $300 for the year, which means that we’re earning about $1 per hour for our time (more or
less). This may indicate that we’re not maximizing our profit with our cabin. Maybe we could charge
more and make more money. But limiting the number of nights we can rent will have a financial impact
on us.

Please consider these points as you consider rules for short term rentals.

Mark Brinton

BUSINESS
Review of education letters to ineligible STRs without sewer or year around water, and realtor letter.
Many of the neighborhoods won’t be eligible for conducting short term rentals because of the Health
Department requirement for year-round running water and connection to the sewer. Those
requirements were put in place to protect the community health and safety. These letters are intended
for roughly twenty properties in Forest Glen and Pine Tree where the water supply is complicated by
various water companies, wells, and no year-round water. When more ordinances are in place and
things are finalized, a letter will go to the entire community to educate everyone about short term
rental requirements.
The realtor letter will be sent to the local realtors. In addition, Jeff will look into a list of relator brokers
in Salt Lake County who can then send the information to the individual realtors in Salt Lake.
Now that the Ace program is active, the MSD code enforcement can issue administrative citations. Polly
will collaborate with Steve Szemerey and Deborah Garner to streamline the process. We can’t cite based
on a listing. We can only use a listing to educate property owners of the requirements. If the calendar is
blocked out, that is cause to investigate and issue a citation. The rental company, Utah Best Vacation
Rentals, has people sign a 30 day lease making it hard to enforce. At the next Town Council meeting,
Polly will present a penalty schedule for violations. Administrative citations are for operating without a
license. Noise issues are processed through the Health Department. Canyon patrol doesn’t have
jurisdiction for private neighborhood roads, so they don’t cite for parking or cars blocking the road.
Zoning ordinances may need to link violations to business licenses where after a certain number of
offenses the license would be revoked for a period of time. The town could also consider hiring a
resident with local knowledge to work in conjunction with the MSD and help with enforcement.

Direction for MSD on business licensing at Solitude and other Property Management Groups.
Solitude Resort Lodging manages roughly 112 condos as short-term rentals out of roughly 211 total
condos at the resort. There are other condos that are rented independently by the property owner or
other property management groups. Currently, the ones managed by Solitude don’t have business
licenses for the individual units. They want to continue operating this way where Solitude has an
umbrella license that extends to all the separate units. They are paying taxes and doing everything right
so don’t want to be penalized for not having separate licenses. If we allow an umbrella for Solitude,
we’d have to provide the same treatment for the other property management groups such as Vacasa,
Evolve, Utah Best Vacation Homes, and Cottonwood Lodging. One challenge with the umbrella license is
that if one property has numerous violations to the point of revoking the license, the property
management group would be at risk of losing it’s only license. An alternative approach was suggested
where the town could implement a master license at a higher rate, possibly $500, with sub licenses at a
minimal fee, possibly $50. Currently, a business license is an annual fee of $150. This would allow the
property management company to add on the appropriate number of licenses under the umbrella
license. Since enforcement may have to be tied to the business license, this protects the master license
and would only revoke the sub license for nuisance properties. It could be set up so that if a certain
amount of sub licenses are revoked then the master license could be in jeopardy. It would be the master
license that would be used for the tax ID number. To qualify for a master license, there would have to be
five units under one management to obtain the master license. Business licenses are renewed annually
on the date the license was issued. The MSD representatives were satisfied with this approach. Polly will
draft it this way for the Town Council to adopt.

It has been asked by a community member how to find out where the short-term rentals are in the
town. It was unknown if the inquiry was to see the impact of STRs on the community or if it was for
solicitation. Business licenses are public information, so the MSD usually requires a GRAMA request

form to track who the information goes to. They would provide the business license number, the
business name, the address of the business and the description. Emails and phone numbers aren’t
included.
It was clarified that there hasn’t been a re-zone in the canyon to enable a Mountain Resort Zoning, MRZ.
Since the MRZ did not go into effect, the way that Solitude has been able to operate short term rentals
is because of their Master Plan. When that was adopted it allowed for density under a certain number of
town homes and condos which are all subject to Solitude’s conditional use permit.

Registration of guests and requiring in person check in rather than self-check-in.
Whether check in is self-check in or in person, it was recommended that providing a vehicle description
and license plate should be a part of the check in procedure so that if a car becomes an issue, it can be
tracked to the rental. The opposition to requiring in person check in is that it increases cars and traffic in
the canyon for property owners to drive up for in person check in. Although it provides accountability
and ensures renters have proper vehicles, it is not realistic for every owner to be here in person. Some
guests arrive at odd hours and it wouldn’t be realistic for every guest. Additionally, all the preparatory
messages that go out to guests ahead of time can cover all of the information needed for the trip to run
smoothly. The alternative to requiring in person check in is to recommend it in the Good Landlord
Pamphlet. This way, property owners and managers can see that adequately informing visitors of the
neighborhood conditions and expectations will help preserve the local community environment.

Day Limits- number of permissible days to be rented annually.
It was previously agreed to recommend to the Town Council to limit the annual number of nights to 180
days. There was brief discussion as to whether a waiver could be obtained to allow more than 180 nights
for people that have been operating legally all along. That would be a different exception to the
grandfathering clause that had previously been decided against. Silver Lake Estates HOA was trying to
put a cap on the number of annual nights and were legally unable to do so since it wasn’t previously
defined in their CCNRs. The reasoning to limit to 180 nights is to protect the integrity of the
neighborhood. Also, to prevent investors from purchasing multiple homes for the purpose of turning
them all into short term rentals. It was encouraged for the subcommittee to think about the specific
goals that 180 nights will accomplish. Having clearly defined reasoning behind it will help to support the
ordinance.

License Cap- to control density.
Capping the number of available STR licenses may be a more effective way to control density, although
it is more likely to have a lawsuit because it is more restrictive than limiting the number of nights. Polly
will see how legally defensible it is and what the cost could be if there was a lawsuit.
In opposition, of license caps, there are many property owners that only rent on the major holidays.
They can charge a premium for those dates while not contributing to the density issue. A cap would
effect these owners who aren’t a part of the problem. Kara will find out if the Granicus data can show
how many days the typical rental is rented for and how many rentals are legal. For tax purposes, if you
rent for less than 14 days per year, you don’t have to claim the income on taxes. However, renting it at
all still requires a business license. From a tax standpoint, secondary property owners pay a higher rate
than primary residents for property tax and many can offset the cost by renting. Additionally, short term
rentals provide the Transient Room Tax, TRT, and although some of that goes to the county, we still
receive a portion of it. In the last distribution, which accounts for two months, the TRT brought in
$10,000 compared to the resort fees of $130,000. Some communities have restricted rentals to
commercial zone only, while some allow it within a certain distance of the ski resort, and some only

allow a certain number per street or block. The subcommittee will do more research on the license cap.
Finding out where we are now in terms of density will help determine what limits need to be set.

_______________________________
Submitted by Kara John