Twofer Tuesday
County sizes up short-term rentals, brings wrestling to Taos
Taos County officials gathered for two meetings in a row Tuesday (March 5). The newsiest item of the day was the county’s commitment to adopt its first-ever short-term rental ordinance by mid-September.
Short-term rentals
The commission met with planning department and other officials late Tuesday morning for a workshop meeting to discuss a proposed short-term rental ordinance that’s been in the works for years.
“Honestly, it’s been so long ago I started this process, and I started with the [Town of Taos Short-Term Rental Ordinance] and tweaked everything, and honestly it’s all cloudy in my brain what I decided to keep from that,” said Senior Planner Andy Jones, who led the workshop.
Jones’ presentation consisted of recent data from Granicus, a service that assists governments in tracking vacation rentals in real time, as well as a spreadsheet of ordinance policy options that was so expansive it would not fit on the commission chambers’ new interactive presentation screen.
Officials acknowledged they will have to do some serious work to narrow down the policy options, which ranged from instituting caps between 600 and 900 short-term rental units in the county, to inheritance exemptions for renters who live on the property where they rent a vacation unit, and potential exemptions for property owners who demonstrate they have an affordable housing unit on the market in addition to a short-term unit. None of the proposed policies are set in stone, and officials anticipate a series of community meetings followed by public hearings before any ordinance becomes law.
Thanks to Granicus, a platform that monitors “more than 60 vacation rental websites through big data and artificial intelligence so no owner or platform can bypass your local ordinance,” the short-term rental market’s impact on housing in Taos County seemed several degrees less dire to several members of the commission than it had in the past.
Like other elected and executive government officials in Taos, however, the Taos County Commission and county leadership consists largely of property owners. If they don’t host short-term renters already, they might in the future.
According to the latest U.S. Census data, Taos County has a total of “right under” 21,000 housing units, Jones said, with about 13,500 in unincorporated areas. The total number of active short-term rentals in Taos
County was 1,414 as of Tuesday morning, while 2,500 properties across the county were considered “vacant.” The county started receiving reports from Granicus in January, and District 3 Commissioner Darlene Vigil said there’s a lot more to learn.
“There’s a lot of folks saying folks don’t have access to housing,” Vigil said, acknowledging the affordability challenges people face. “But until we see the whole picture — like how many [vacant] homes are in need of fixing? All that counts for something.”
In unincorporated Taos County, where an ordinance would apply, there were 759 vacation rental units in Taos County on Tuesday morning, according to Granicus.
In Red River, there were 333 short-term rentals, while the Village of Taos Ski Valley had 162 and the Village of Questa had just 10 units for rent. In Taos, where the town is in the process of revising its Short-Term Rental Ordinance, there were 150 listed on Tuesday morning, according to Granicus.
The town’s current ordinance mandates a cap of 120 vacation rental permits, a fact that drew attention to issues of compliance and enforcement. The county anticipates hiring as many as three new employees to administer and enforce its short-term rental ordinance.
When depicted as a percentage of total housing units in unincorporated communities, the short-term rental unit numbers from Granicus were revealing. Where Arroyo Hondo has approximately 3 percent of its housing units listed as shortterm rentals, Arroyo Seco has 13 percent.
In communities like Peñasco and Costilla, less than one percent of housing units were offered as short-term rentals. In Ranchos de Taos, 12 percent of housing units were listed as vacation rentals. In El Prado, a whopping 36 percent of housing consists of short-term rentals.
Vigil asked Jones if the proposed caps in the working draft of the county’s ordinance could be applied by community and adjusted for the density of vacation rentals.
“If we had countywide zoning, I would be all in favor of just having caps for each zone,” Jones said. “The fact we don’t makes it hard to do that.”
Plaza, courthouse
The first of commissioners’ two meetings was fairly brief, as officials dispensed with lodgers’ tax funds, awarding $15,000 to Kristin ‘Gemma Ra’Star’ DiFerdinando’s Mindful Movements Horsemanship, which will host the World Horseback Archery Federation World Cup Qualifier in Taos, and $15,000 to Duke City Wrestling, which will hold its championships in Taos this year.
The commission heard public comments from Taos Walking Tours owner and guide Sam Richardson, who asked the county to consider reintroducing Taos Plaza Live on the plaza, which the county was recently forced to recognize its ownership of after decades — and also very recent — Town of Taos maintenance.
“The question is whether there’s going to be Taos Plaza Live or Kit Carson Park Live,” said Richardson, who is also the Taos News editorial cartoonist, referring to the Town of Taos’ decision to remove the beloved event to Kit Carson Park last year amid protracted plaza construction.
“We would like to see it come back over to the plaza like it used to be,” Richardson said. “I’m casting one vote.”
Later in the meeting, District 1 Commissioner Bob Romero said a plaza discussion will occur at the next joint meeting of the commission and Town of Taos Council.
Project Manager Richard Sanchez updated officials on two major projects: the Taos County veterans cemetery and the historic Taos County Courthouse renovation. The cemetery is on track to open by the end of June, while the old courthouse won’t likely be complete until as far out as “the end of 2025.”
“We have the electricians in,” and the ADA-accessible elevator shaft is nearly ready for its car, but “the whole nation is short of skilled tradespeople,” Sanchez said. At this juncture in the renovation, Sanchez suggested a last tranche of funding the county has “tentatively received” would best be put to use tying up loose ends on the final phases of the project.
“The plan was to replace all the old floors,” he said. “The flooring contractor said they are in good shape, they are re-finishable; yes they’re a little bit wavy, but that adds some character to it and saves $50,000-$100,000. I like the old floors myself.”