Charlottetown moves to regulate short-term rentals

Charlottetown city councillors have started work on a bylaw to regulate short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.

Planning chair Greg Rivardsaid Monday night that public consultation will begin in the next couple of weeks with a survey, followed by public meetings in June.

"Once that's done we will take that information back and staff will will craft up a bylaw," he said. "Then we will take that bylaw again back out to the public."

Looking at other cities

Short-term rentals have surged in popularity on P.E.I. recently with one out of every 50private dwellingslisted on the Airbnb website, according to an analysisby CBC News.

Meanwhile the vacancy rate for apartments in the city and province overall has fallen to almost zero.

Rivard says those numbers will be taken into consideration, along with looking at what other cities have done, to ensure the bylaw fits Charlottetown's needs.

"We seesome cities that limit the amount of rentals that one owner can have. There's other models that bring in the zoning, for instance," he said.

"So there's different models to look at, again, and we're going to take the information from the public, going to take the information that staff gather for best practices across the country."

Rivard hopes to have the bylaw completed in August for the public to have another look at it and then council could vote on it in September.

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