Durango already has a tight housing market, and the rising popularity of vacation rental homes isn’t helping simplify matters. Conflicts between property owners have popped up over parking, property uses, regulation and lifestyles. Some residents view renting their property short-term as a right and a way to provide financial security. Others see it as encroaching on their quality of life by inviting noise, trash and strangers next door. The city is caught in the middle trying to regulate a solution. The perspectives below offer a glance into the complicated issue.
Pro: Vacation rentals financial investment, property-rights issue
Krista Park is often traveling as a mountain bike racer, using her downtown Durango loft as a vacation rental property, to the disapproval of some neighbors.
Vacation rental homes trigger almost visceral reactions of some residents for and against the idea. Residents like Park see the industry as a way to bring economic development to the city while using the property as an investment. Others see the rentals as a threat to their neighborhoods, destroying character, peace of mind and using scarce parking spaces.
The city of Durango is trying to decide how to regulate the practice and develop a compromise everyone can live with.
“It’s great for the city of Durango,” Park said. “I don’t see any negative issues at all.”
At $4,200 a month, Park’s vacation rental doesn’t attract much riffraff, prone to loud music or parties. She markets it online as an upscale and corporate housing option. She was recently contacted by a woman whose 92-year-old mother was coming to visit and wanted to stay downtown.
“She’s really active, still river rafts and she wants to be able to walk to the store,” Park said, referring to her conversation with the daughter.
Victoria Schmitt operates one vacation rental on East Fifth Avenue and was approved for another on the same street in December. There should be oversight by the city and limits on the amount of vacation rentals in some areas, but the benefits of having the rentals outweigh most problems, she said.
“I mean it’s a great way for people from out-of-town to come and enjoy the town,” Schmitt said.
“Visitors love living in a neighborhood and spend money in local restaurants, shops and other retail stores, returning home as “great ambassadors of the community,” Schmitt said.
Durango City Councilor Christina Rinderle said she doesn’t see vacation rentals as a commercial use because people are living in the home like a resident. Her husband manages resort properties, she said in a Durango City Council study session meeting earlier this month.
“With a vacation rental, it almost comes down to a property issue,” she said. “It’s (residents’) financial decision to buy a home and their financial decision on how they want to maintain that financial decision.”
Con: Too many vacation rentals bad for city
Some Durango residents fear that if vacation rentals are allowed to proliferate, buildings will become hotels.
Vacation rental homes trigger strong opinions among Durangoans. Residents living in historical neighborhoods or downtown fear losing area character, revolving doors of people coming and going, tourists hogging parking and dealing with noise and trash. Others argue vacation rentals add character to a community, bring money into the local economy and are a personal financial investment.
Joe Gambone has lived next to vacation rental homes in California, which soured him on the concept. He lives on Main Avenue and actively opposes vacation rentals on his floor at The Lofts at 1201, a mixed-use commercial and residential building.
“What really tickles me is people are saying ‘There’s no complaints,’” Gambone said. “Well, there’s no complaints because they’re regulated. The current city regulations are pretty good.”
Gambone takes issue with a recent Durango City Council proposal to waive a physical distance rule between businesses and residential housing if it’s in the Central Business District, which encompasses downtown.
“We’re not out to ban vacation rentals,” he said. “We think a certain amount of that is actually good for a community. But where we’re headed now it seems is taking away all the restrictions.”
Jim Foster lives on East Third Avenue in the city’s historical district. He said he’s worried about the parking associated with vacation rentals being “crammed into the older neighborhoods, where parking is already a serious problem.”
“The cars associated with those rentals have to go somewhere,” Foster said.
A nearby rental unit, not a vacation rental, caused some problems a couple of years ago, which has since been cleaned up.
“The principal problem is just the overcrowding in the older neighborhoods,” he said.
Parking for vacation rentals in downtown was the topic of a roundtable discussion earlier this week at River City Hall. Durango is considering capping parking spaces for vacation rentals to two, listing the available spaces on the advertisements and placing restrictions in city permits.
Current city code allows 25 vacation rentals, each permit good for one, but at least one website is advertising about double that amount, leading to enforcement questions. Greg Hoch, Durango Community Development director, said too many vacation rentals could result in a lack of college student housing, affecting the entire local economy.
smueller@durangoherald.com
