This post is written and paid for by Jackson Hole Working
JACKSON, Wyo. — Short term rentals are being discussed throughout the community. The Lodging Overlay, located in the heart of downtown, is where this use predominately lives in town.
We currently see this use on Glenwood Street and proposed buildings where the Lodging Overlay is in place.
The Town of Jackson will be discussing whether to extend the shortest term of renting a housing unit (apartment, condo, townhouse, single-family home) from 30 days to 90 days. These are not short term rentals in the Lodging Overlay; they are private property owned throughout the town in various zones.
What will we gain by increasing the term from 30 days to 90 days?
Some might tell you housing units that will go to the workforce. However, few of these rentals will be available to rent long-term to the working locals and their families.
If these actions released dozens of housing units for local working individuals and families, we would see the merit; however, there are no indications that this will be the case.
Others will say we will close the loophole that allows folks to rent out their homes for 30 days while only inhabiting the property for one, maybe two weeks.
Yes, people in Jackson use this “loophole” to rent out their homes; however, many do to offset property taxes or supplement their incomes to pay for the rising costs of nearly everything in our community.
With the rising costs of property taxes, does it make sense to tie the hands of locals with choices that allow them to remain in Jackson?
Are these rented units, possibly a couple of times a year, worth proposing action when many of these are inhabited by locals and will not then be housing stock?
And the ones not owned by locals, is it better to have dark, empty homes?
These units are private property, and regulations such as those being proposed represent a taking of said rights.
Political decisions to address “neighborhood character” with unintended consequences to locals will not move housing forward in our community.
The unintended consequences would include traveling nurses or doctors with four- or eight-week contracts would no longer be eligible to rent residential housing units. A newly recruited LVE powerline technician or schoolteacher who finds a rental that starts a month or two from the start of their job would have no option but a hotel room or short-term rental until their lease commences, even if a residential unit were available. A full-time Teton County family with a 30- or 60-day gap between losing a lease and moving into a property with a new lease would not be able to rent a residential unit during that gap. There is zero flexibility for every day, real-world situations.
The enforcement of these rules is also an issue. With Town staffing at a minimum, why do we continue to create regulations that require additional enforcement when we cannot enforce what is currently on the books?
Let’s focus on getting affordable housing on the ground.
