Council wrestles with vacation rental requirements

Whether a planned new residence on O’Brien Avenue will be used for long-term leases or as a vacation rental caused a hiccup during the Whitefish City Council’s consideration of a conditional use permit for the property.

Tanner Babcock requested the CUP to construct a second residence at 26 O’Brien Avenue, where there is already a single family home used as a short-term rental.

City Council on Sept. 6 approved the conditional use permit 5-1. Councilor Frank Sweeney voted in opposition.

Sweeney said he had concerns about the residence being constructed for a long-term rental and then the owner switching to short-term. His concerns centered around a requirement that short-term rentals have a fire sprinkler system, but long-term do not.

“The cost of installing the sprinklers is expensive,” Sweeney said. “If they construct it as a long-term rental and decide they want to do a short-term rental, will they really want to retrofit it for sprinklers. I don’t have a high degree of confidence that we would enforce that requirement afterward and it doesn’t seem equitable.”

Jill Lawrance, with Montana Creative who represents the owner, said the decision for the residence to be used as a long- or short-term rental would come later in the design process before the project is submitted to the city for building permits.

“The building department and the fire department will review this,” she said. “The owner doesn’t want to pigeon-hole the project at this point. We will have full disclosure when we submit for a building permit.”

Fire Chief Joe Page said the city would request sprinklers be installed if the residence is to be used a short-term rental.

A CUP is required because more than one use is proposed for the lot. The new residence would be located above a two-car garage on the 4,530-square-foot property in the WB-3 general business district, where vacation rentals are permitted. Currently there is a single family home rented out with a short-term rental permit, and a garage, which would be removed to make way for the new structure.