Support Tourism Recovery & Oppose Burlington's Ban on Short-Term Rentals!
Support Tourism Recovery & Oppose Burlington's Ban on Short-Term Rentals!
The Issue
A few people with a lot of power in Burlington, Vermont are proposing a new city ordinance that would put the majority of short-term/vacation rentals out of business. This proposal wants to ban all Short-Term Rentals (STRs) that aren't a sub-let of the host's primary residence. That would eliminate all second homes, condos, and ADUs from being able to be rented out to tourists and visiting families.
This ordinance will only encourage higher rents and empty spaces instead of encouraging the tourism and temporary housing options that Burlington desperately needs during this time of pandemic recovery!
This ordinance will also harm the majority of "mom-and-pop" VT residents who host short-term rentals because they are just trying to survive in Vermont and keep their property. This will cause local Vermonters to have to sell their Burlington properties if this ordinance passes or considerably raise rents for long-term tenants in order to break even to keep their property.
Please pass this petition on to anyone and everyone you think will be affected, write to the Burlington City Council and Mayor, and fight to keep this ordinance from going through! A public hearing is expected in January 2022 and this ordinance would go into effect immediately!
For those who aren't directly affected by this Burlington law but who enjoy staying in Airbnbs, VRBO, and vacation rentals across the state and country, think about how this could have a cascading effect across Vermont and the nation. Burlington is proposing wiping out the most popular type of community-driven accommodation in favor of large hotels instead!
City Councilor Jack Hanson, claims that STR hosts "have enough money" already and don't deserve this opportunity as a source of income. Our data suggests 54% of Burlington hosts earn a household income of LESS THAN $100,000 a year, including their STR earnings!
The truth is, the STR hosts in Burlington are not the super-wealthy.
City Councilor Joan Shannon claims that this ordinance will return the "Airbnb model" back to its original form. FALSE. The original model is "vacation rentals by owner", where the owner rents their vacation home to others when they're not using it! This ordinance will ELIMINATE VACATION RENTALS in Burlington.
While the Council claims this move is only trying to help the “housing crisis”, they have no evidence that it will, and STR hosts have already testified that it won't. Housing availability & affordability depend on several factors, the top influencers being the rate of housing supply growth relative to community demand, and restrictive zoning regulations. In 2021, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency reported that “Vermont’s housing growth rate has declined considerably since the 1980s when it was increasing at a rate of 1.81% per year.” The report states that “housing experts point to several causes contributing to this long-standing decline in home construction, including increasing costs for construction materials, labor shortages, regulatory restrictions and local opposition to development.“ Burlington has one of the most restrictive zoning regulations in all of Vermont, thus, the limited number of new permits issued per year has been shown to have a greater effect on housing vacancy rates than any other factor.
In Vermont's most expensive market, housing has been unaffordable long before STRs entered the scene. In Burlington, the annual vacancy rate was lower in 2006-2011 before Airbnb (founded in 2008) became popular. The annual vacancy rate grew from 0.7% in 2006-2011 to 1.5% in 2012-2018, despite the expansion of STRs in the city. An annual survey in October 2020 on the apartment market in Chittenden County, home to Vermont's largest city, showed that the number of apartment units built each year directly influenced rent inflation. In the period of 2000-2009, when the number of new units averaged 154 per year, rent inflation averaged 4.2%. But in 2010-2019, when the average number of new units reached 416, average inflation was cut almost in half, to about 2.4%.
All this ordinance will do is benefit the rich hoteliers of Burlington while harming the average property owner, the average tenant, and all the Burlington business owners that rely on the city's extra tourist capacity.
This is not a progressive policy. This is simply a bad policy that will invite numerous unintended consequences and negative impacts. It must be stopped.
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION IF YOU OPPOSE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR SHORT-TERM RENTALS.
***Note restrictions on Page 4 of this Ordinance***
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT:
(f) In addition to registration requirements for all rental units noted in (a) – (e), all short term rentals subject to inspection pursuant to Sec. 18-16 shall be subject to the following requirements:
(1) A short-term rental shall be the primary residence of the host (dwelling units indicated as seasonal 90 homes by the Burlington Assessor and owned by the host are exempt from this requirement).
PLEASE NOTE: DONATIONS TO CHANGE.ORG DO NOT GO TO THE VERMONT SHORT TERM RENTAL ALLIANCE!! To donate to Vermont's STR advocacy efforts or to become a member of the Vermont Short Term Rental Alliance, go to www.vtstra.org
The Issue
A few people with a lot of power in Burlington, Vermont are proposing a new city ordinance that would put the majority of short-term/vacation rentals out of business. This proposal wants to ban all Short-Term Rentals (STRs) that aren't a sub-let of the host's primary residence. That would eliminate all second homes, condos, and ADUs from being able to be rented out to tourists and visiting families.
This ordinance will only encourage higher rents and empty spaces instead of encouraging the tourism and temporary housing options that Burlington desperately needs during this time of pandemic recovery!
This ordinance will also harm the majority of "mom-and-pop" VT residents who host short-term rentals because they are just trying to survive in Vermont and keep their property. This will cause local Vermonters to have to sell their Burlington properties if this ordinance passes or considerably raise rents for long-term tenants in order to break even to keep their property.
Please pass this petition on to anyone and everyone you think will be affected, write to the Burlington City Council and Mayor, and fight to keep this ordinance from going through! A public hearing is expected in January 2022 and this ordinance would go into effect immediately!
For those who aren't directly affected by this Burlington law but who enjoy staying in Airbnbs, VRBO, and vacation rentals across the state and country, think about how this could have a cascading effect across Vermont and the nation. Burlington is proposing wiping out the most popular type of community-driven accommodation in favor of large hotels instead!
City Councilor Jack Hanson, claims that STR hosts "have enough money" already and don't deserve this opportunity as a source of income. Our data suggests 54% of Burlington hosts earn a household income of LESS THAN $100,000 a year, including their STR earnings!
The truth is, the STR hosts in Burlington are not the super-wealthy.
City Councilor Joan Shannon claims that this ordinance will return the "Airbnb model" back to its original form. FALSE. The original model is "vacation rentals by owner", where the owner rents their vacation home to others when they're not using it! This ordinance will ELIMINATE VACATION RENTALS in Burlington.
While the Council claims this move is only trying to help the “housing crisis”, they have no evidence that it will, and STR hosts have already testified that it won't. Housing availability & affordability depend on several factors, the top influencers being the rate of housing supply growth relative to community demand, and restrictive zoning regulations. In 2021, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency reported that “Vermont’s housing growth rate has declined considerably since the 1980s when it was increasing at a rate of 1.81% per year.” The report states that “housing experts point to several causes contributing to this long-standing decline in home construction, including increasing costs for construction materials, labor shortages, regulatory restrictions and local opposition to development.“ Burlington has one of the most restrictive zoning regulations in all of Vermont, thus, the limited number of new permits issued per year has been shown to have a greater effect on housing vacancy rates than any other factor.
In Vermont's most expensive market, housing has been unaffordable long before STRs entered the scene. In Burlington, the annual vacancy rate was lower in 2006-2011 before Airbnb (founded in 2008) became popular. The annual vacancy rate grew from 0.7% in 2006-2011 to 1.5% in 2012-2018, despite the expansion of STRs in the city. An annual survey in October 2020 on the apartment market in Chittenden County, home to Vermont's largest city, showed that the number of apartment units built each year directly influenced rent inflation. In the period of 2000-2009, when the number of new units averaged 154 per year, rent inflation averaged 4.2%. But in 2010-2019, when the average number of new units reached 416, average inflation was cut almost in half, to about 2.4%.
All this ordinance will do is benefit the rich hoteliers of Burlington while harming the average property owner, the average tenant, and all the Burlington business owners that rely on the city's extra tourist capacity.
This is not a progressive policy. This is simply a bad policy that will invite numerous unintended consequences and negative impacts. It must be stopped.
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION IF YOU OPPOSE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR SHORT-TERM RENTALS.
***Note restrictions on Page 4 of this Ordinance***
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT:
(f) In addition to registration requirements for all rental units noted in (a) – (e), all short term rentals subject to inspection pursuant to Sec. 18-16 shall be subject to the following requirements:
(1) A short-term rental shall be the primary residence of the host (dwelling units indicated as seasonal 90 homes by the Burlington Assessor and owned by the host are exempt from this requirement).
PLEASE NOTE: DONATIONS TO CHANGE.ORG DO NOT GO TO THE VERMONT SHORT TERM RENTAL ALLIANCE!! To donate to Vermont's STR advocacy efforts or to become a member of the Vermont Short Term Rental Alliance, go to www.vtstra.org
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Petition created on December 29, 2021