Sandpoint will likely remove its cap on short-term vacation rentals.
In a case between the Idaho Association of Realtors and the City of Lava Hot Springs, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in May that any prohibition of short-term rentals is illegal.
Sandpoint’s legal council says that means the city’s current cap of 35 non-owner occupied short-term rentals in its residential zones would almost certainly fail if the city got sued.
Sandpoint's planning director Jason Welker says litigation is more than possible.
“We are on year three now of an ongoing lobbying effort by the Airbnb-funded group Idaho Vacation Rental Association to lobby state legislators to further strip cities of the ability to regulate short-term rentals," he told the commission.
Welker added that some local Airbnb hosts gathered recently at a meeting that may have included a discussion of litigation.
"We understand the purpose of that meeting to have been to recruit a plaintiff for a lawsuit against the city of Sandpoint," Welker said.
To avoid a costly lawsuit, the city is now trying to strip its code of anything that could be deemed a prohibition.
This has gotten pushback from some people in the community who worry that more short-term rentals means less neighborhood character and higher housing costs.
Welker and his team proposed new code that would seek to regulate rentals by requiring them to provide off-street parking and a local representative living within 20 miles.
But the planning commission postponed their vote in order to explore if there are any other legal regulations possible.
"Regulations are distinct from prohibitions," said Sandpoint legal advisor Zach Jones. "To prohibit is to forbid, prevent, preclude, or severely hinder. To regulate is to control, especially through implementation of rules...So, later on down the road, the question is going to be what is severely hindering short-term rentals."
