The Durango City Council set up a vacation rental permit wait list Tuesday to help handle demand for them in the historic neighborhoods.

The list had broad support and received four votes. Councilor Keith Brant, who runs a vacation rental company, abstained.

The city has not sent out many letters to homeowners operating vacation rentals illegally yet, but officials plan to send out letters soon now that a wait-list process is in place, Assistant Community Development Director Nicol Killian said.

The city uses Host Compliance to identify illegal vacation rentals, and once the city sends out cease-and desist letters, that could boost interest in the list for permits, she said.

The list is meant to prevent a rush to turn in applications when a property with a vacation rental permit sells. Vacation rental permits are not transferable between the seller and a buyer of a home. But frees up a new vaction-rental permit in the neighborhood.

After a home with a permit sold in a neighborhood where no additional vacation rentals were allowed, confusion ensued because several people attempted to apply. The buyers of the property beat out other interested people.

Jackie McManus Bonanno’s parents were interested in a permit before the home sold, and they tried to point out to city officials that buyers of homes with vacation rental permits would have an edge because they would know of a permit becoming available. However, nothing was done to close the loophole, she said in an interview.

“Now, there is a more fair, equitable system that doesn’t provide an inside track,” she said.

In an earlier interview one of the buyers, Rich Myers, supported the new wait list as well.

The McManuses and another interested party will flip a coin for a second vacation rental permit that became available in the interim, the council decided last week.

The loser of the coin toss will be at the top of the new waiting list.

The city plans to accept applications for vacation rental permits, and then hold a lottery for positions on the list.

A window for accepting these applications has not been set, but it will be widely advertised.

An application fee of $100 will be charged to join the waiting list, but the fee will not count toward the permit fee, according to city documents..

The fee for a vacation rental permit is $750.

Being added to the wait list will not guarantee the applicant a permit.

If someone is caught operating an illegal vacation rental they will be dropped to the end of the wait list.

mshinn@durangoherald.com