Emotions high in Rexburg town hall meeting on Airbnb
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REXBURG — People were spilling out of the door at City Hall to participate in a hot topic discussion on vacation home rentals. The emotion-filled meeting lasted four hours.
The Rexburg City Council called the Wednesday evening town hall meeting to hear each side of the Airbnb debate, which came to light around July.
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Airbnb is a website that allows people to list, find or rent vacation homes, and many in the Upper Valley have been satisfied with the business from it. Others, aren’t too happy with their hosting neighbors.
“We were able to spend a lot of time and listen to a lot of people and get a lot of different points of view. I thought there were very good points made on both sides, and that’s really what we were looking for,” Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill said after the meeting.
Some 30 people shared their opinion on allowing or not allowing Airbnb rentals in low density residential areas. A current city ordinance does not allow bed and breakfasts or vacation rentals in LDR zones. Airbnb falls under the category of a vacation rental.
Rexburg resident Ismar Vallecillos lives in the Indian Hills neighborhood. Neighbors in the Indian Hills originally posed complaints to the city about others with Airbnb. Vallecillos however, says he does not oppose Airbnb.
“All of the ‘for’ comments discussed the benefits to the community, benefits to families, to individuals, income being one of these which also becomes money you put back into businesses,” Vallecillos told EastIdahoNews.com.
Many raved how Airbnb has allowed out-of-state visitors to be a part of Rexburg’s “Family Community,” and that it has fostered cultural experiences.
During the public comment portion of the meeting resident David Peck said, “There’s a very strong history of opposition to the commercialization of our neighborhood. We also feel that there are many parts of this city that are zoned appropriately for this (Airbnb) activity.”
Peck said Rexburg’s zones are well maintained and intelligently placed. He said the town’s zoning ordinances shouldn’t be reformatted to allow Airbnb rentals.
“I think this matter speaks to the very heart of why we zone at all. We zone things commercially so that it helps enhance the quality of the commerce in the city,” Peck said.
A possible solution to the Airbnb quarrel was presented in conjunction with the home occupancy portion of the development code. It allows, with a conditional use permit, for 20 percent of a person’s home to be used for a home occupation, in this case a bed and breakfast. Some in favor of Airbnb were open to this idea as a fix.
Merrill said he and city officials want to know as much as they can before making a formal decision, if one is to be made. He did not give a timeline on a conclusion to the vacation home rental issue.
“We feel like we want to take a little more time, study the issue out a little bit more. Maybe look at what other cities are doing and evaluate whether that’s the way we want to go, or is it not the way we want to go,” Merrill said. “We want to do what’s right for Rexburg.”