Vacation rental sites like Airbnb and VRBO staked claims in ski resort areas around the U.S. starting in the early 2000s.
Now Summit County, Utah, has more short-term rentals than any other county in the state, as its tourism, ski terrain and housing costs all have grown too.
County leaders have long thought of short-term rentals as small hotels, just with less regulation. But that’s soon to change.
A subcommittee of county staff and councilmembers has drafted “tentative” restrictions.
Lynda Viti, one of Summit County’s civil attorneys, says that might include prohibiting nightly rentals in neighborhoods flagged as potentially unsafe in an emergency.
“We considered whether or not there was a single point of ingress and egress, whether the roads were narrow, twisty, unpaved, whether wayfinding was existent,” Viti said at the June 3 county council meeting. “Some neighborhoods will tell you, ‘This is an emergency evacuation route,’ and some neighborhoods have nothing.”
The neighborhoods being considered for a ban are some of Summit County’s most remote, or mountainous.
They include Summit Park, Timberline, Tollgate Canyon, Stagecoach Estates, Browns Canyon, Lake Rockport Estates, upper Weber Canyon, Samak and parts of Woodland.
Members of the short-term rental subcommittee like Councilmember Tonja Hanson say it’s an issue of health, safety and welfare. Interim Clerk Malena Stevens says tourists don’t do the same due diligence that homebuyers do.
“They're looking at pictures, they don't necessarily have any idea,” Stevens said during the same June 3 discussion. “I think the assumptions are different for people that are residents and inhabiting those areas versus those that are just coming here for a fun weekend.”
Hanson recounted recently visiting areas destroyed by the Palisades Fire near Los Angeles.
“The devastation, house after house after house, just gone,” she said. “And I've thought about those neighborhoods, and Paradise and those places — that can happen here.”
Roger Armstrong is the other councilmember on the subcommittee. As much as he agrees that government should promote health, safety and welfare, he indicated that nightly rental policy is housing policy, too.
“We're losing those units from that stock as people convert them,” Armstrong said. “I've heard more than one story about somebody being frustrated with long term rental and deciding to put something in a short term rental because it just generates more money.”
An early memo staff sent to the Summit County Council in 2022 regarding short-term rentals mentioned both safety and housing affordability issues.
The memo references a 2021 report by The Spectrum newspaper in St. George. Washington County staff are quoted saying that every 10% increase in short-term rentals leads to a 42% increase in rents in a given area.
But Armstrong said Summit County is not rushing to rein in the “boutique hotels,” as he calls them.
“Before people start panicking and figuring that their neighborhoods are set to be restricted from something, those are just general concepts for now,” he said. “There’s a lot of meat to be put on that bone.”
The council agreed to take public comment before it considers voting on new rules for rentals.
Councilmember Megan McKenna reminded residents they can use general public input — every Wendesday council meeting at 6 p.m. — to weigh in, provided the topic isn’t on that day’s agenda.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
