POWELL RIVER, BC- Powell River Council are bringing down the fee for vacation rentals.
Under the city’s business license bylaw, it is a $2,000 fee for vacation rentals. According to the Powell River Peak, mayor Dave Formosa wanted to cut it in half and drop it to $1,000
The city will allow ten vacations rentals but an unlimited number of short-term rentals, according to the council agenda.
The city’s planning department defined vacation rentals as, not someone’s primary residence, but as someone’s investment property.
They defined a short-term rental as someone’s primary residence, and the person renting will live in one area of the home at the same time.
The original $2,000 fee was created because those who were running the vacation homes were not paying any business tax, they were just paying residential tax.
But because they were technically running a business council felt that there should be an additional cost.
The mayor’s proposal to drop the fee down to $1,000 was brought up because to rent out the vacation home one person would be renting out the entire house, rather than one person per room.
The Airbnb owner would not be making as much money as what council had originally assumed.
It was also brought up that only having a total of ten vacation homes in the entire city is not a lot considering the number of tourists who typically visit Powell River, according to the Powell River Peak.
The motion was carried unanimously to cut the fee in half.
