Several Lake Geneva aldermen and short-term rental property owners recently had an opportunity to present ideas and possible solutions for dealing with the city’s short-term rental property issues.
Members of the recently-established Short-term Rental Ad Hoc Committee conducted their first meeting April 3.
The meeting was considered a listening session in which residents, short-term rental property owners and city officials could present concerns and possible solutions related to issues regarding Lake Geneva’s short-term rental properties.
Members of the Lake Geneva City Council unanimously approved March 11 to establish the Short-term Rental Ad Hoc Committee to help city officials review and revise Lake Geneva’s short-term rental ordinance, develop cost-effective methods to enforce the short-term rental ordinance and help residents address their concerns related to short-term rentals.
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The committee consists of residents, short-term rental property owners and city officials.
Some of the concerns that residents have addressed during the past year regarding short-term rental properties include loud parties, inappropriate behavior and increased vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods.
During the ad hoc committee meeting, several aldermen discussed how short-term rental properties are affecting residents and offered solutions.
Alderwoman Peg Esposito proposed working with a company that residents could contact to address their concerns, then representatives from that company could contact the property owner to inform that there is an issue occurring on their property.
Esposito said members of the City Council discussed hiring such a company several months ago.
“The people who are running these short-term rentals need to know that people are noticing problems with them,” Esposito said. “By hiring a company that has a recording component, people on the council felt that maybe that would be a good way to start. I’m hoping that as you start developing some plans, maybe that is something you could consider.”
Alderwoman Cynthia Yager said she also would like the city to develop some type of method for residents to report any issues related to short-term rental properties. She said several residents are uncomfortable contacting police regarding such issues.
“I would have a very difficult time calling the police myself,” Yager said. “I would just be afraid of retaliation or something else. If you had a person or a place to call and report and have it be anonymous, I think that would be a huge help.”
Yager also proposed that the city include a provision that short-term rental owners live within a certain distance of their property.
“I don’t know what the state says about that as far as requiring something like that, managers living within a certain distance or someone living onsite or something like that,” Yager said. “But it seems like that would be a very good idea to have somebody look at that.”
Alderwoman Mary Jo Fesenmaier said when an incident occurs at a short-term rental the owner of the property should receive a citation as well as the people who are staying at the property.
“Once the owners are ticketed, I think things would change,” Fesenmaier said. “So make sure you include both people visiting and the people that own the property.”
Fesenmaier said the city did approve to work with a company, Avenu Insights & Analytics of Virginia, to help monitor short-term rental properties but a funding source to officially hire the company has not been identified at this time.
“It has been stuck in finance for the last three months,” Fesenmaier said. “No one on staff brought it forward from finance for a funding source, and the funding is there.”
Fesenmaier also proposed having a code enforcement officer available on the weekends to help handle issues that may occur with short-term rental properties.
“We don’t have code enforcement on the weekends. That’s the council’s fault for not looking at that option,” Fesenmaier said. “So maybe you guys can suggest it. We’re using our police as code enforcement, so that is another issue.”
Short-term rental property owners’ perspectives
Several short-term rental property owners also attended the meeting to offer suggestions.
Scott Robinson, short-term rental property owner, said the issue is not with short-term rental properties as a whole but with individual owners.
He said owners who are in violation or who have an incident occur on their property should receive a citation.
“Fine the owner, ticket the owner, don’t renew their license,” Robinson said. “But to penalize every owner is not fair.”
Robinson said residents who live near his property know how to contact him in case there is an issue or emergency.
“Our neighbors know us. They know how to get in touch with us,” Robinson said. “If there’s any issues they can contact us.”
Robinson said people who rent his property are asked to follow certain rules to make sure they are not negatively affecting the neighbors.
“We don’t have problems. Our house rules are real tight. We charge them a little more so we don’t have issues with renters,” Robinson said. “We’re not going to let anyone come in and trash our name, trash our house, inconvenience our neighbors. It’s not going to happen.”
Tisha Bennett, short-term rental property owner, said she has her renters sign a contract in which if the police are called to the property she has the right to keep their $1,000 “damage deposit.” Bennett said she also asks her renters to not have any outside noise after 10 p.m. during the summertime.
“I can also kick them out and not refund their money. They have to sign all these contracts so I’ve never had a problem with that,” Bennett said. “The contract that people have to read and sign is taken very seriously and it has eliminated a lot of problems.”
Bennett said city officials could adopt a policy that requires all short-term rental property owners to have their renters sign a contract.
Next steps
The Short-term Rental Ad Hoc Committee is set to review the city’s short-term rental ordinance and propose revisions to the ordinance which will be reviewed and recommended by the Plan Commission and then voted on by the City Council.
“Once we have presented and recommended an ordinance, we will still start looking at other ways to address issues whether it be enforcement, monitoring— whatever it is— as well as resident reporting,” Alderman-elect Joel Hoiland, chairperson for the Short-term Rental Ad Hoc Committee, said. “We think it is important that residents take responsibility and also not feel put in place or feel exposed by reporting an issue that might be going on. So we want to make sure the ordinance covers that.”
Members of the Short-term Rental Ad Hoc Committee were set to meet Wednesday, April 17 to review different sections of the short-term rental ordinance.
Hoiland said the goal is to have some of the revisions presented to the Plan Commission in May.
“It may take a few meetings because we will be discussing it and revising it and getting feedback, then we will go to the next meeting and keep working on it until we have something we think is ready to be presented to the Plan Commission,” Hoiland said. “The goal is to get moving. Short-term rental season is coming up.”
Hoiland said there are about 73 licensed short-term rental properties in the city of Lake Geneva; however, there may be more that are not registered with the city.
“We know there are others out there that are unlicensed and unregulated,” Hoiland said. “We don’t know the specific number but we will find those people and they will be fined and hopefully we can bring them into the program.”