Windsor signals move to step up vacation-rental oversight

Windsor’s passive approach toward short-term vacation rentals is coming to an end.

The Town Council is moving to tax them, similar to the 14 percent rate for hotel rooms, and come up with regulations to ensure the town’s housing stock and neighborhood tranquility are not compromised.

Council members agree on the need for greater oversight of vacation rentals and on Wednesday ordered town officials to come up with tentative regulations to consider at a later date.

In addition to levying a tax, the council also is looking to make sure residents are notified about vacation rentals in their neighborhood and that either the owner or property manager lives within 30 miles in case problems arise.

Council members also expressed a desire to keep absentee property owners and real estate trusts from buying up homes as short-term rental investments.

“I’m totally into the sharing economy,” Councilwoman Deb Fudge said, adding that she understands short-term rentals offer financial benefits to homeowners. But “we need to keep an eye on this, so we stay the town we are.”

The move comes as short-term home rentals to tourists have mushroomed in many communities, allowing visitors using sites such as Airbnb or Vacation Rental By Owner an alternative to hotel stays while providing extra income for property owners. But the rentals are sometimes criticized for reducing the amount of housing available for residents and eroding neighborhood cohesion because of the frequent turnover of visitors.

Cities like Healdsburg and Calistoga have gone so far as to forbid short-term rentals.

In Windsor, there appear to be relatively few short-term rentals and little controversy so far.

Most of the advertisements for vacation rentals in Windsor are for the WorldMark by Wyndham development, a timeshare resort that collects and pays hotel bed taxes.

Windsor staff members identified roughly a dozen other advertised vacation rentals in town, with an average rate of $175 per night, and a three-night minimum stay on the weekend. Currently, the town only requires vacation rental owners to pass a fire-safety inspection before a business license is issued.

Councilman Dominic Foppoli, who has a vacation rental at his winery between Windsor and Healdsburg, said he is acutely aware of the issues involved and he supports permitting them but with restrictions.

He said that his rental generates close to $10,000 annually in transient occupancy taxes to the county.

There are ways to ensure tranquility, Foppoli said. As an example, he cited a policy in Austin, Texas, where if there is a justifiable call to police for violating the noise ordinance, the guests get a $1,000 charge to their credit card.

Foppoli recently stayed in a vacation rental there. “We were not making a peep after 10 o’clock (at night),” he said.

The council heard from both sides of the debate Wednesday.

Vacation rental owners said guests stay longer than they would in a hotel and tend to spend more money in the area.

One Santa Rosa man told the council he rents out up to three of his bedrooms while he’s home and is able to pay his mortgage that way. He also pays a bed tax to the city.

Michael Robison, who has a short-term rental on the outskirts of Windsor, said there need to be simple, clear, effective rules so the rentals aren’t driven underground.

Susan Strong, a resident of the Shiloh Greens neighborhood, said she has had to put up with a “party house” for five years, an adjacent short-term rental used for bachelor parties and bridal showers.

She said the racket was especially difficult when her late husband was dying of cancer.

“I’m in a really nice neighborhood,” she said. “The value for me is down because of this.”

She also acknowledged that if property owners are simply renting out a room, it’s less problematic.

But “I’d like to see it regulated,” she said.