Council wrestles with vacation rental properties

RAY SPITERI

Niagara Falls city staff will report back to council on how the municipality can better control vacationrental properties.

“We’ve been fooling around with this for several years,” said Coun. Wayne Thomson.

“I know the clerk … every time he gets one of these, he reacts with his people, they try to track it down — it just doesn’t work.

“I wonder if we could come in with some kind of control which is going to say they cannot be in residential areas, and if there are any proposals, they have to come in and have an approval of council and give the public the opportunity to have a say whether they want this in their areas.

“This is just getting worse and worse and people are very upset about it.”

Thomson said he has received several emails from residents concerned about a rental home on Niagara River Parkway.

He said there’s even a new one in Calaguiro Estates, which “I don’t think really has started yet because I think it’s just been put on the website recently.”

Thomson made a motion to have staff report back “as quickly as possible” on some solutions.

Chief administrative officer Ken Todd said staff has been meeting and trying to come up with such a report.

“We’re going to have a report back hopefully fairly shortly to you outlining some options for you,” he said.

“Based on that, council can give us further direction. It may require some public input, but we’ll be back with a report outlining some options that you may want to consider.”

Council has heard in recent months from residents who are concerned about rental homes in several neighbourhoods.

On some occasions, residents have complained about bylaw infractions including parking, noise control, public nuisance, along with lewd and bawdy behaviour.

“There are a lot more operating than I think any on council actually appreciates,” said Mayor Jim Diodati.

“I’d hazard to guess there’s several hundred, maybe even thousands in Niagara Falls, and most of them operate with no problems and the neighbours are aware and they’re comfortable with it. But you get the odd ones that are problems. The problem is we don’t have teeth, we don’t have authority, we don’t have regulation, oversight, licensing.”

Diodati said Niagara-on-theLake and Fort Erie, for example, allow rental homes, but it licenses them and inspects.

“Here … it’s a little wild wild west. It’s important that we have a system with regulation and enforcement and controls.”

Thomson added about rental homes in other communities: “They have specific standards, so that if anybody comes in there and they cause any problem with their neighbours, they’re identified and they can never come into that establishment, or the air b and b people have regulations with respect to that.”