In 2008 the Bald Eagle Club in upper Deer Valley prohibited nightly rentals through its homeowner association bylaws.
A proposed ordinance on the council’s agenda Thursday would have taken it a step further and enshrined the neighborhood’s nightly rental ban in city code.
Other HOAs have come to the council with similar requests in recent years.
Last year the council approved bans for nightly rentals and fractional homes in Park Meadows’ West Ridge subdivision and in Prospector’s Chatham Crossing neighborhood.
Park City Councilmember Ryan Dickey said Thursday those moves set an unintended precedent.
“We didn’t want to do it again,” Dickey said. “We approved that one with the direction of we don’t want to get in this business of restricting rentals at this micro level.”
Dickey said the city should stick with regulating land uses through zoning.
“There’s sort of an absurdity to saying on this street you shouldn’t have a nightly rental, but they’re appropriate right next door and over here. That’s restricting a property right that really goes beyond what’s appropriate for the municipality, and is what the Legislature comes and tells us that we do; we just listen to public clamor and we don’t know better and we think we do. So I think we should respect our planning process.”
Councilmember Bill Ciraco agreed.
“I think these neighborhoods, these HOAs would have an issue if the city were wanting to restrict them beyond what they restricted themselves,” Ciraco said. “I don’t really feel like the city needs to step up and take the role of enforcement from the HOAs on these issues.”
The council unanimously rejected the ordinance that would have memorialized the Bald Eagle Club’s prohibition in city code. So enforcement will remain at the HOA level.
