All Forum Posts by: Dito Calderon

 Totally agree with @Mitch Davidson. It's hard to say post Helene what the sentiment will be.  I listened to all the previous hearings and the general sentiment was acknowledging that STRs are critical to the area's massive tourism industry and just banning them is not wise for the local economy. Balancing that with wanting to do something to maintain affordable housing for those in mid to lower income brackets.  

As Mitch pointed to, on one hand, STRs are housing supply locally and will likely get looked at.  On the other hand, there have been many STRs which switched to medium term housing families who were displaced after losing their homes in the storm. Without that supply, those families would be in a rough spot having to leave their communities and stay much further away/be even more disruptive.  I'm not sure what the narrative will be after everything settles.  

Agree with Mitch that if you are going to act, would definitely recommend getting in and getting going so you can claim grandfather status when regulations go into effect.  Ofc I am not on the committee but from watching, the grandfathering of existing units has consistently been on the plan to allow existing STRs to remain operable.

@Mitch Davidson - are you hearing anything different or more detailed locally? 

Update: It looks like the county has appointed an 11 person short term rental committee to review the work, investigate more, and provide a recommendation and will be disbanded by November 30th.  It is expected to propose text and regulation in October and host a special planning board meeting October 28th to review with the planning board.  That board would then approve or deny which would send the bill to the councilpersons for an official vote to put into effect.   Here is the link to the home page which includes the video and notes of bi-weekly meetings of this committee:  https://engage.buncombecounty.org/d1035

After reviewing the minutes, it seems very much to be in exploratory. The next two meetings are on Oct 2 and Oct 9th.  It does not seem to be close to final by any stretch. The sentiment seems mostly in line with previously proposed terms - allow for grandfathering, Basic requirements including permits, impact based on different zoning, size, parking, septic, trash, parking etc.  The one thing I found possibly concerning is a restriction of 2 people per BR according to the septic of the house.  That point was pretty neutral when polled so it is something to watch for.  

Feel free to track on the site above or if not, I'll post again with an update in a few weeks time as they get closer to some sort of proposal.  

Obviously can't guarantee anything. What they have spoken about is changing what's allowed in each zone as opposed to changing the zoning of an individual property. So, for OU (open use) they have gone back and forth whether they would or would not allow based on lot size or otherwise a STR in that zoning.

They have paused for 100 days until they reconvene to re assess and study more the impact. I think that first 100 days is up in July if I remember correctly. So, as of now, there are no permits or applications or anything. 

Yeah - hard to predict either way tbh.  Nice to have the breathing room, and I'll def keep tracking what happens to make sure to predict this and any possible future investments!

I also noticed in the last hearing that they changed it to say 2 days in the last 2 years.  They started at 180 days, moved to 1 year and now 2 years. Looks like they are working to find a balance of feasibility on validating that claim of 2 days and enforceability.  

@Mitch Davidson thanks for sharing that!  I didn't see that article great to have visibility into the timeline a bit more.  

Does anyone know if I can link multiple Schlage encodes to the same reservation?  I am setting up an airbnb and still figuring out which channel manager I will use and the feasibility. Thanks in advance for insights! 🙌 

The April 15th meeting was pushed to April 22nd due to scheduling.  I am still working my way through the video, but here are some key points so far.  

Here is the video if you want to watch.  From 9:45 to 20:30 walks through a summary of the proposal as well as options that the board has on the table.  https://www.facebook.com/buncombeGov/videos/628829406107729

Here is an infographic explaining the proposal in its current state: https://www.buncombecounty.org/common/planning/calendar-file...

The planning board (who only have the power to pass a proposal on to the commissioners who would actually vote it into law) voted and agreed to hold the public hearing, yet not vote on the proposal until they have had more time to review, get focus groups together including more voices, and understand all sides of the concern.  The sentiment was that STRs are a critical part of Buncombe County so they don't want to cut them off. At the same time, they have heard from communities and citizens negatively impacted from STRs and want to "protect the sanctity and right of owners and residents" in their communities. 

The next working session is in May and I will keep following along and post summaries into the thread here! 

 Thanks for the reply and explanation! Super helpful to understand a topic I am just getting read up on.  

We are working with a designer and project manager out of state to setup a STR for a property we just bought. Major work will be done by licensed GCs where we will be "additional insured". Some of the other work will be done by handymen or other people. Work such as building furniture, hanging tvs and pictures, replacing fixtures, etc. They do not have WC and I am getting clarity on whether they have liability. If not, I will push them to get that. I assume that even though there are a few steps of contract relationship (me to designer to them and maybe to a sub beyond that), that I still would own liability in any sort of event.

Thanks for helping me learn - we definitely want to protect downside risk.