The Task Force did not answer the questions about what should are regulated and where. There were a number of reason why this happened. First, the Task Force itself was unbalanced and was weighted heavily toward operators who were opposed to any changes to the status quo. Second, the Task Force meetings were poorly facilitated and structured, resulting in many Task Force members understanding little about the associated land use and zoning issues. Finally, the input of residents concerned about or critical of dedicated STRs generally was ignored.
The Short Term Rental (STR) Task Force wrapped up their work in mid 2019 with a report to the Town Council. Among its responsibilities, the Task Force was charged to develop a set of final recommendations related to the future regulation of dedicated STRs, defined as housing units that have no permanent occupants and that are rented entirely via STR platforms.
The participants in the Study Group representing CHALT conducted the following evaluation of the process and product of the STR Task Force.
Why didn’t the STR Task Force succeed in answering these fundamental questions?
The Task Force failed to address those fundamental questions for several reasons. First, the Council appointed Task Force itself was unbalanced and was weighted heavily toward operators who were opposed to any changes to the status quo. Second, the Task Force meetings were poorly facilitated and structured, resulting in many Task Force members having little understanding of the associated land use and zoning issues. Finally, the input of residents concerned about or critical of dedicated STRs generally was ignored.
- The STR Task Force was unbalanced. The Town Council chose the members of the task force from a pool of applicants and did not pay sufficient attention to the orientation of the applicant to achieve a balance of interests. The initial idea of selecting champions from town advisory boards did not succeed because these members appeared disinterested or unknowledgeable about the subject. The bottom line result was that when each member stated their interest and position, over three-fourths of the members were owner operators of STRs and/or stated an opinion that opposed any regulation and minimal, if any, safety regulation.
- Task Force meetings were poorly facilitated. While two co chairs were elected early on to lead task force activities, town staff set the agenda for meetings, eventually in consultation with the co-chairs, but during the task force meetings, staff members steered in their preferred direction. Consequently, the task force was not allowed to grow organically and address the essential questions before them. Additionally the Town facilitators should have found a way to acknowledge citizen comments in the task force proceedings and not discount critical opinions.
- The STR Task Force received poor support from the Town. The town staff did not utilize the good data and information supplied by the paid expert from the Institute of Government. The Town did not respond to suggestions from community commenters, or task force member suggestions to review ordinance in force in other college towns. For observers, it seemed the comments from the Town supporting staff was inserting opinions that emphasized the difficulty of achieving regulation thus leading to complete legalization of investor-owned STRs everyplace in town.
- None of the citizen comments, pro or con, were addressed by the Task Force or contained in the final report. Many citizens attended the meeting and expressed their concerns, with the number of speakers concerned about the impacts of dedicated STRs in the community increasing from one meeting to the next. These comments were not acknowledged by the Town.
A final comment on the STR Task Force. Many members of the task force, as well as interested citizens, have acknowledged their discouragement with the lack of progress on the task force. There was so little agreement, that the final meetings were devoted toward finding a few points of common ground with the knowledge that they had been unable to recommend a clear approach to regulation and to answer what and where short term rental are to be allowed in Chapel Hill.