Windsor tackles short-term vacation rentals, again

A latecomer to regulating short-term vacation rentals, Windsor is to wade into the issue again on Wednesday.

The Town Council is set to discuss a draft ordinance regulating non-hosted short-term rentals — where no owner is on the property while guests are staying there — that is already being criticized by residents who say it pales in comparison to those in other Sonoma County cities.

“I beg you to please not allow a weak STR ordinance here in Windsor, and instead insist on an STR ordinance that is at least in line with our neighboring communities,” resident Gene Keiser wrote to the Town Council this month.

His was one of more than a dozen letters submitted to the council — all critical of the ordinance.

Over the years, Windsor has inched toward regulating short-term rentals — a landscape dominated by Airbnb and VRBO properties — even as other communities in the county have moved to tightly restrict them.

Santa Rosa, last August, set a limit of 198 such rentals under emergency rules it adopted while fashioning permanent regulations; Sonoma, in 2017, prohibited any new short-term rentals; Healdsburg prohibits them in residential neighborhoods and has fewer than a dozen all told, officials said.

In 2015, the Windsor council levied a 12% tax on short-term vacation rentals. At that time, Windsor officials identified about a dozen short-term rentals operating in the town.

At that time, an “internal policy” — which is still in effect — was developed requiring owners of short-term rentals to get a business license, undergo a fire safety inspection, and comply with zoning standards, although they are not subject to code enforcement, according to the staff report submitted to the council for Wednesday’s meeting.

Today, according to the report written by Patrick Streeter, Windsor’s community development director, there are 108 active short-term rental business licenses, but 132 advertising in the town, and 125 being actively rented out in the past year.

In 2017, the council asked that the town’s zoning code be changed to explicitly allow short-term vacation rentals to boost housing stock and economic activity following the Tubbs and Nunns wildfires. Life did not cooperate. Changes were delayed by subsequent wildfires, a transition to district elections made under the pressure of a lawsuit, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in 2021, community concerns prodded the council to ask for an ordinance to be written. Town planning commissioners asked for certain changes, including the addition of language that nobody could own more than five short-term rental properties in the town, and that the maximum number of days that short-term properties could be rented out in a year be set at 182.

Progress was again delayed while the city updated its housing policies because they are impacted by short-term rentals. And community concerns over proliferating rentals led to a moratorium on new business licenses that have been in effect since last August.

The draft ordinance the council is to review Wednesday would require all short-term rental owners to get a permit and limit them to owning no more than five in the town.

The ordinance does not cap the days a property can be rented out in a year because, Streeter said, it was decided that would be hard to enforce. The ordinance would require a permit to operate short-term rentals in all of the town’s residential neighborhoods and several of its commercial neighborhoods; it would also mandate that all neighbors within 300 feet of a prospective short-term rental be notified.

Opponents say the draft ordinance contains virtually none of the restrictions they have advocated for, many of which are based on the regulations in nearby cities.

"To be blunt, it is next to worthless in its current state," said Jim Mathison, who has led much of the opposition to the ordinance.

Streeter acknowledged there are differences between Windsor’s proposed ordinance and those of other cities. But, he said, “The draft document under consideration by the council reflects the policies and performance standards that have been presented, discussed, and refined at workshops and public meetings specific to Windsor.”

He added: “The Town Council, should it decide to adopt a short-term rental ordinance, has the authority to make the provisions more restrictive or more lenient.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay