'Not a bit different'

The Saratoga Town Council discussed on March 19 whether to bring back for consideration a short-term rental ordinance which would regulate vacation rentals after a group of residents expressed their interest and the planning commission indicated it wanted to pursue this.

Town Planning Administrator Emery Penner said in his report the planning commission had “a long conversation” with the public about an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals, such as AirBNBs. Four members of the public came to the meeting, he said.

McCall Burau, chairman of the planning commission, commented at the council discussion.

“I think our board is still pretty passionate about pursuing some sort of regulation or permit process,” Burau said. The commission would like to proceed and create a subcommittee to see if they can “workshop this.”

“It seems if we’re going to do permits for chicken” and other businesses, “It feels odd that there is not a permit process for vacation rentals—they are a business,” said Burau.

Mayor Davis said he had a call into the town attorney, Kylie Waldrip, to get “a little more clarification on her end.”

“It’s important to be proactive on this,” Councilmember Kathy Beck said. “Just so we have something in place…”

Councilmember Jerry Fluty interrupted Beck, asking, “Do we have to make them have a permit for anything they want to do, permit, permit, permit. I guess I grew up here where everything didn’t have to be permitted forever. But now we’re making permits for events, a permit for alcohol at events, a permit for this, a permit for that.”

Beck replied, “I think it’s a valid point though for us to regulate people opening their homes and potentially having rentals that…”

Fluty, again, interrupted Beck, “Is it different than a monthly [rental]; it’s not a bit different. You don’t control who your neighbor is going to rent to monthly.”

In a later interview, Burau wrote in an email to the Sun:

“The planning commission still feels it is important that some kind of permit process for short term rentals be created and that language specific to short-term rentals be included in our town ordinances. The planning commission has stated we would like to move forward with drafting said permit process, building on the work that we did last year.

“Any other business which operates in a residential zone, which is not listed as a permitted home occupation (18.06.190), needs to be approved by the planning commission after a public hearing. As far as I know, no current short term rentals have applied for a special use permit with the town, and therefore are all currently operating illegally.

“The Town Attorney and Mayor fear possible lawsuits if the town tries to restrict private property rights. I believe that short term rentals violate current zoning code, which needs to be enforced above private property rights. If the Town Council does not want to pursue updating our code to include specific language and process to short term rentals, then the current code needs to be enforced which would require all rentals, both short- and long-term, to acquire a special use permit to operate legally (18.15.030.G, 18.15.040.J, 18.18.030.G, 18.21.030.G, 18.21.040.i, 18.24.030.G, 18.24.040.J, 18.27.030.G, 18.27.040.J).”

“Isn’t it the point of having a hearing is to have this conversation and allow people to have…” Beck said.

“It is,” the mayor said. I want to “hear from the town attorney. She was the one who gave us the advice to table it, if she wants to reopen it, then … I will bring it back to the council and the council can decide at that time. I don’t know where I stand on that, but that doesn’t matter.”

In other business, Matt Webster, IT director of Carbon County, said he is a member of the state Cyber Security Planning Committee. The state has been awarded a State and Local Cyber Security Grant from the federal government. The funds are limited, but he wants to make sure all communities and not just the state level has access to the benefits the grant provides.

Cyber events potentially can happen in small towns as well as larger communities, Webster said. CrowdStrike—a next generation anti-virus/anti-malware program—which is the program the grant will fund, is used by both the county and the state. If a computer is connected to the internet and has been compromised in some way, this program should detect that and remediate those issues.

If the town signed up for the free service, funded through the grant for two years, it will receive the CrowdStrike program, he said, and his team can be the boots-on-the ground to do the implementation, management and monitoring of the program.

“If something happens, our team would be here to help mitigate and manually resolve everything,” he said.

“Let’s move forward with CrowdStrike and opt-in with the county,” Mayor Davis said.

The council approved a motion to opt-in with the county on this program.

Former council member Jon Nelson made a presentation on a proposed ordinance to allow residents to raise chickens for eggs in their backyards.

Nelson said he would like the council to consider creating a Title 18.42050 which would allow a resident to have chickens on an undeveloped residential district parcel of five acres or greater.

He proposed not allowing roosters in this code.

He said he took the language for the ordinance from a combination of similar ordinances in the Cheyenne and Laramie codes. He proposes a maximum of six chickens. The code he proposed included a permitting process.

Beck asked about the lot size. Nelson said the ordinance would only apply to single-family dwellings and not townhomes or condos.

“Is the intent to raise eggs? Beck asked.

Nelson said that was the intent.

Mayor Davis asked, “Did somebody approach you or are you just going to start raising chickens?

He said the intent is to provide a way for people to become more self-sufficient.

“I don’t know if I would be the first one to raise chickens,” he said. “I would buy eggs from my neighbors.”

“We can let the planning commission look at it,” the mayor said.

In the Police Department report, Chief Mike Morris said he wanted to hire two new officers: Charles Holt and Casey Lehr at $24 an hour. After six months probation, the hourly wage would increase to $24.50 an hour.

The council passed a motion to hire the two men.

Morris said the total the town paid the county for dispatch services per its Memorandum of Understanding was $45,000.

Also in his report, Morris said he met with Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken about the possibility of creating a joint powers board to oversee the operations of a dispatch services center to serve the county sheriff’s department and the municipalities of Carbon County.

“Both Bakken and I are in agreement, this might be the best [option],” Morris said. “I approached Bakken about this last November to see how we could work together.”

Mayor Davis said he would like to hold a public hearing/workshop to get people’s opinions on this. He would like to hold the meeting in a neutral place such as the community center.

Morris said no decision has been made. The mayor concurred.

“We need to listen to the people here,” the mayor said.

Beck said this was an opportunity to gather public input.

The mayor said he would like the public hearing/workshop to be “very structured.” First would be a public hearing for a limited amount of time, followed by some rebuttal from the sheriff, the chief and possibly a council person or commissioner.

“Then possibly an hour discussion, to see if we can come up with a plan and decide exactly if we want to go with a joint powers board, which I think is the best talking to some people,” he said.

The sheriff will not be in charge, he said.

“He [the sheriff] will be giving up basically his dispatch to a joint powers board,” the mayor said.

Amanda Escobedo of Amanda Escobedo Elevate Events spoke to the council about applications for a street closure permit and a special event for a wedding on the evening of August 10. The location is Saratoga Avenue alongside of the Riviera Lodge.

Escobedo said she expects between 175 to 190 guests and parking for 50 to 60 vehicles. The wedding tent is 100-feet long and stakes down, not out.

Mayor Davis said the town has a noise ordinance and the noise must end at 10 p.m.

She said the event will end by 10 p.m.

The council approved the application and permit.

House District 47 Representative Bob Davis reported during his update from the recent session that the legislature increased the local government distribution from $100 million to $146 million.

Rep. Davis said Saratoga’s share this year is $81,279.

He said the Legislature got the budget to Governor Mark Gordon. The Governor’s budget was $1.8 billion.

“Overall, I think it was a good budget—a lot of compromises between both the House and the Senate…,” he said.

The legislature passed four property tax relief bills, which were not reform bills, he said. A House Joint resolution is coming before the voters in the fall, which would create a 4th level of property tax, which he considers a reform proposition.

He said the Legislature discussed an education savings bill that would set aside state dollars for parents who choose to educate their children. Currently in rural areas, the only option is public schools and homeschooling. The state is currently developing the criteria for the program.

The Legislature passed a bill which allows municipalities to participate in a state pool investment that, although a higher risk product, can yield as much as a 5 percent interest on money.

The Legislature has created a short-term rental regulatory task force to address the statewide affordability housing crisis. This is an interim topic this year. Whether Airbnbs should follow the same rules as the hotels is a topic in this discussion.

Under the Public Works Department, Director Emery Penner asked the council to approve a contract with Plattoga Holdings, LLC in the amount of $28,500 for crushing recycled asphalt to use on road base at a significant savings from purchasing it.

Council approved the contract.

Penner said the River City project and Never Forget Me Park went out to bid.

Under new business, the mayor said: “We’re short a council member. What I would propose is we go out for a notification on the 25th of March …and we advertise to the 19th of April …and that will give us two weeks prior to look at the letters of interest and possibly make a decision on the 5/7/24.”

Recreation Director Kim Hemenway asked council to approve a correction in staff Whisper Bunch’s hourly rate to increase to $18. Council approved the pay.

Under the Fire Department report, the council approved a bid for $5,180.25 for a Blitzfire monitor package from Hero tool company.

The mayor said the fire department has a new member Savannah Wells.

The fire department submitted a quote from Municipal Emergency Service for $1,617.98 for a thermal imager and an aluminum carabiner mount.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on April 2 at Saratoga Town Hall.