If there’s heavy smoke drifting over Durango tonight, it might be from the heat of residents and city councilors debating the amount and location of vacation rentals allowed in the city.
Some Durangoans have written to the city, deploring language used in the proposed revision to the Land Use Development Code allowing one vacation rental per block face in the established neighborhoods. Durango City Council and city staff members have responded to assertions some councilors have a conflict of interest and approval of the current draft vacation rental home standards will hurt the city’s already-tight housing market.
Karen Anesi, who lives on East Third Avenue, sent a letter to the city supporting passage of the updated code with the exception of the vacation rental code change. More than two dozen people also signed the letter.
Residents are confused about what the city is proposing because there wasn’t enough public discussion on the issue, and people misunderstood when the proposed change in neighborhoods was added, Anesi said. The block-face rule, which could mean 59 vacation rentals in old Durango, was put into the draft land-use code last year.
“Neighborhoods still don’t know what going on in their neighborhoods,” she said. “Again, I asked for a meeting.”
City staff members held two roundtables on vacation rental homes, along with public workshop on other parts of the proposed code. The update process started in 2009. The previous code mandated 500 feet between vacation rentals.
Heather Bryson, who lives on East Fifth Avenue, also opposes the draft vacation rental house language. She wrote approving more vacation rental permits won’t build healthy neighborhoods or stability. She rents to college students and wants “worker bees and young couples” to get a foothold in the neighborhoods.
Councilor Keith Brant said vacation rentals make up about 1 percent of the city’s housing stock, and he’d rather live next to a vacation rental than college students because there’s fewer people and vehicles.
He’s proposing to cap vacation rentals in the neighborhoods rather than the block face because the second person on that block who applies for the permit loses out.
“Nobody has to call the planning department and waste their time and the planning department’s time determining how many permits have been issued,” he said.
Brant and Councilor Christina Rinderle have faced criticism from some residents who have said that their work in the real estate industry or managing vacation rentals is a conflict of interest, and they should recuse themselves.
“I think they need to not vote in this situation,” resident Tom Darnell said. “They need to acknowledge it and not vote.”
City Manager Ron LeBlanc defended Rinderle and Brant, saying while the city doesn’t have a separate written ethics policy, Durango’s elected officials and staff members follow state ethics law. It calls for members of a council who have a “personal or private interest” in a proposed or pending matter to abstain from voting. Personal or private interest has been interpreted as a direct financial or personal interest that doesn’t include a speculative future benefit, LeBlanc wrote in an email to a resident.
“It’s very frustrating because there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Brant said.
The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
smueller@durangoherald.com
