Whitefish begins chipping away at stock of illegal short-term rentals

Whitefish’s short-term rental specialist, Codi Evenson, has been on the job for about one month. She says she is already making headway in reining in the proliferation of illegal vacation properties as she builds the newly created position from the ground up. 

“If this is how far we’ve gotten in a month, just imagine how far in six months,” Evenson said. “I think it’ll be great.”

Kalispell born and raised, Evenson comes to the position at the City of Whitefish with an understanding of short-term rental policies and the application process after serving her hometown as the permit technician for the last 8 1/2 years. She is not fazed by what is considered by many to be a problem of huge proportions.

“I remember when I started being the permit tech in Kalispell [and thinking], ‘Holy smokes – this is like drinking from a fire hose.’ And I don't feel like that at all,” she said. “I feel really, really good about it.”

Currently, there are 371 legally operating short-term rentals in Whitefish and an estimated 400 short-term rentals that are out of compliance for any number of reasons: they are not located in a permitted zone, do not pay the resort tax, are not licensed or have not had the necessary inspections.

“I feel like 400 is, honestly, a manageable number,” she said. “It might take a couple of years to get it reined in. I feel 100% confident that we’ll be able to get done what we need to get done within the parameters of the policy.”

Since the problem of bringing illegally operated short-term rentals into compliance is comparable to eating an elephant, Evenson says she is approaching the problem piece by piece and is currently focusing on zoning.

“As we get everything sorted away, then we’ll be making sure that everyone who is operating a short-term rental does have the permit/business license,” she said.

Now, she finds a listing for a short-term rental and identifies the general area. She will then visit and look for house numbers or through the windows to try to identify the building on the listing, like a detective of sorts.

“Basically, I'm manually looking through all the listing sites and trying to identify anyone that is outside the jurisdiction,” Evenson said. “We’re in the process of identifying a program that will scrub for us and find all of the listings that are listed within the city limits of Whitefish.

“[That will] give us the ability to identify the address, so it’ll take a huge burden off of me,” she added.

The scrubbing or identification software will be a game-changer because it runs through all the listings and produces a list of every short-term rental listed within the city. The company says that users of the software can expect to get 90-99% compliance. Evenson hopes to be running the software by July 1.

“They’re starting to pop up now,” she said of the short-term rental listings. “They take them down for the winter then they pop up in the summer.”

When she finds an illegally operating short-term rental, Evenson sends letters or emails to the owner who, oftentimes, had no idea they were operating illegally. If they do not comply within a certain timeframe, the matter goes to the legal department which may assess a fine.

“Everyone that I've identified and talked to has been really understanding,” she said. “Most of the time, they … had no idea or the real estate agent told them they could do short-term rentals.”

Much of her time is spent educating people about the requirements and offering them options, like offering 30-day rentals or, better yet, putting it on the market as a long-term rental.

EVENSON’S WHOLE family — except her brother who is serving in the Air Force — is in the valley, and many live and work in Whitefish. Her husband’s family homesteaded just southwest of Whitefish in 1909. 

She married her high school sweetheart, her two daughters love horses, wrestling and playing softball, and the family has horses, cows and, of course, a dog. She said hers is an “all-around Montana kind of life.” 

While she feels lucky that she and her husband of 14 years bought their home between Kalispell and Whitefish years ago, she worries about the ability of their children to be able to call the Flathead Valley home when they grow up.

“I couldn’t imagine trying to find a house right now. It is a terrifying, daunting idea,” she said. “And I couldn't imagine leaving the place I grew up and being priced out of it. That’s so sad. Breaks my heart.”

After graduating from Flathead High School and earning a natural resources degree from Flathead Valley Community College, she worked in banking before taking the permit technician job with the City of Kalispell. It was there she learned that she likes the public process.

“The part I love about working for local governments, in general, is everyone gets treated the same,” Evenson said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, your policy is still the same and I think that’s huge.

“I have a heart and compassion for people but at the same time, let’s work through it, we’ll get it figured out,” she added.

How to operate a short-term rental legally

Apply for a short term rental permit/registration license.

Due to a change in the state law, Whitefish no longer requires business licenses, but it does require a business registration. The cost of the license is $400.

Evenson then visits the site to make sure there is adequate parking and that the rental is in the correct zone. The building department also checks the structure.

Evenson then conducts a fire safety inspection to assure the property is up to code and the license is issued.

The short term rental operator is required to renew the license every year and to report and pay resort tax each month, which is 3% of gross sales.