The Town of Innisifil seems posed to take another crack at licensing short-term accommodations (STA) in the municipality.
Council passed a resolution at its June 26 meeting accepting a staff recommendation to develop a licensing framework that regulates STAs. The matter will return to council at a later date for further discussion and direction before any licensing is implemented.
Mayor Lynn Dollin thinks it’s the town’s best option to successfully control STAs in the town.
“It’s been made clear to me that the only municipalities that seem to be having success in this particular area are ones that have a licensing regime,” she said, giving local examples such as Tiny Township and the Town of Blue Mountains.
It’s still a fraught issue, with councillors having to juggle their own opinions on STAs with the vocal opposition from many of their constituents, particularly along the shoreline.
“I get it: I get that you don’t want to enable something you don’t want to see,” Dollin said. “But at the same time, if you don’t have anything to take away, there’s nothing you can do. You have to give them something to take it away.”
One way the licensing will work to the town’s favour, staff believe, is the full inspection process that each property will have to go through before obtaining a licence. And even then, there are guidelines over when a property can actually be licensed.
Coun. Kevin Eisses raised a question that lingered from previous debates on the matter.
“We’re asking to put a licence on something that’s not zoned for that use,” he said. “How can we license something that isn’t allowed in that zone? We have a residential property; it’s not a hotel. We’ve going to give it a licence so it can be a hotel?”
Director of Planning and Growth Andria Leigh assured councillors that wouldn’t be the case.
“The short answer is that we wouldn’t issue the licence because it’s not zoned to allow that use,” she said. “One of the requirements typically in a licensing bylaw is that they comply with the zoning bylaw.”
If a licence application was received for a property not properly zoned for that use, such as a ghost hotel, town staff would deny the application, Leigh explained. If someone was found to be operating without first applying, they could be charged with contravening the licensing bylaw that’s in effect, as well as the zoning bylaw.
Deputy Mayor Kenneth Fowler hoped the town’s administrative monetary penalty (AMP) policy could be utilized in any enforcement process, to expedite issues and keep more of the fines in Innisfil.
“Every time it goes to court, it takes time … and then the cost and the effort is not really worth it, because the province takes most of the finances,” he said. “If we have something similar in town, where you get a fine, then you talk to someone in town hall and then it goes into the town coffers.”
Expanding the AMP program was always the plan for the town, once it got up and running, Leigh said, but she pivoted to pitch how the licensing program could make things even easier for the staff. With a demerit system in place to punish bad behaviour and no need to go through the courts, unlike a zoning bylaw infraction, the licensing of STAs could prove to be efficient.
“There are established set fines for contraventions under the licensing bylaw, including revoking someone’s licence if they get to a certain demerit point,” Leigh said. “Those don’t require a court process, so it is a bit more immediate.”
The staff report before council also contained minor corrective amendments to the town’s zoning bylaw and the Our Shore Community Planning Permit bylaw, based on issues that have arisen since the previous updates.
Staff had delayed making these changes, pending matters in front of the courts. Details on the resolution of those judgments were not discussed, only to say that the town was successful in its prosecutions.
One change was to clear up some confusion regarding the definition of a bed and breakfast in the town.
Fowler wanted to know if any future changes to STA regulation in the municipality could dictate that the owner of a bed and breakfast must be present during any rental.
“The current situation has a loophole where someone can say, ‘Oh, I went to my sister’s for the weekend and rented out two rooms,’” he said. “We’re looking at the idea of is there a way we can have some accountability placed on the owner.”
Leigh was non-committal and explained how the situation currently works.
“When we get a complaint, we look at those definitions (of different types of STAs) and whether the individual property complies or doesn’t,” she said.
Following some additional discussion around the impact licensing could have on the local rental market, raised by Coun. Alex Waters, council moved forward with the recommendation, but not before Dollin stressed to her colleagues to be cognizant of staff’s time.
“I don’t want to put them through months of work to come up with a licensing regime only for us to say no,” Dollin said.
