Transient home rental program working for county
While single-family home rentals remains a topic of debate in Mammoth Lakes, Mono County has seen the success of the Transient Rental Overlay District (TROD) program, allowing property owners to provide nightly rentals.
“The program, thus far, has been working for us,” said Courtney Weiche, Associate Planner for Mono County Community Development. “And I think it’s because it’s not an easy process.”
Property owners must apply for a General Plan amendment of a TROD, which passes through both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors for approval. Owners also must acquire a Vacation Home Rental Permit, agreeing to comply with a long list of regulations including maximum number of guests and adequate local property management to deal with complaints, in order to actually rent the home.
“We have made it that way so that neighboring property owners have ample opportunity to weigh in on whether or not they feel their neighborhood is appropriate for such a permitted use,” Weiche said. Opposition from neighbors has resulted in two withdrawals of applications since the start of the program.
The Mono County Board of Supervisors approved the TROD program in 2012 and has approved five different districts with 12 unique properties since, including two new ones in June Lake at their regular meeting on Tuesday, December 2.
Property owner Mike Rosas argued in favor of the TROD at the meeting. “Rusty Gregory said it’s important that we establish more units, more beds, and ones that would attract guests in the winter that have disposable income,” he said. “This is an opportunity to do that.”
One of Rosas’ neighbors wrote a letter of opposition, expressing concern over loud parties, too much trash and parking issues. Rosas said he will hire a property manager on the same street to address these concerns.
Supervisor Johnston was the only Board member not in support of the new district. “When we first adopted this, I was concerned about the slow change from residential neighborhoods to transient occupied neighborhoods, and I vowed to myself that if there were opposition in a neighborhood, I would not support it,” he said.
Scott Burns, Director of Community Development, said the TROD program “is saving us a lot of staff time. It’s not perfect, but it gives people an option to come into compliance.”
Many property owners rent their homes illegally, in Mammoth as well as throughout the County. The TROD allows Code Compliance officer Nick Criss an option to offer owners as he’s citing them. Criss said of all the properties under the TROD program, he has not received any complaints from the community. Although “we do continue to get complaints about illegal rentals,” he said.
Supervisor Byng Hunt asked Burns if the program could be successful applied to Mammoth. “It’s a cumbersome process and not easy to go through,” Burns said. “Mammoth is much more of a condensed area. We only have 13 or 14 areas that we are dealing with. But it’s the next big question for Mammoth. It seems like they have some neighborhoods they could zero in on.”
As Weiche told the Sheet later, “We are not in a position to comment on whether or not [TROD] would work in the Town of Mammoth Lakes.”
