MY TURN: Mini motel district, the STR issue

As a 26-year resident of the Garden District, I am appalled of many things in the changing neighborhood landscape, but the short-term rental issue is tops. I have observed seven Vrbo/Airbnbs, and one more developing within a one-block radius of my front porch.

I believe this de-stabilizes the neighborhood with an impersonal transient population that has no investment nor care in the community. This contributes to a decline in desirability and comfortable living.

When the short-term rental housing is vacant (not owner occupied) it attracts the homeless (one instance so far) and petty crime, party noise, parking problems and just a seemingly disruption of a peaceful neighborhood community.

I don’t believe I signed up for a commercial motel-type district when buying and reconditioning my historic cottage-style home. It should have been made a historic district with all the limitations!

Some other side issues affected by this out-of-control hodgepodge trend is the lack of long-term apartments/residential homes for the service sector employees of the core downtown businesses who have a difficult time with staffing properly, causing many to shorten their business hours and days of operation. Unheard of in a resort community until recently, disrupting even the tourism. Also causes parking problems as the employees are parking to nearly one block of my home (six blocks from Sherman Avenue), making it difficult for residents south of my block closer to town and their guests to find street parking.

This all exacerbates the community’s age imbalance and downtown business viability. Other subtle effects – increased use of rodenticides and other poisons when facilities are vacant and absent owners, making it difficult to make the decision to own companion animals/pets when some have no antidote and affect non-target cats, dogs, birds, squirrels, even the occasional cougar, i.e. Mountain Lion Foundation studied and pushed legislation to prohibit sale of the anticoagulant DeCon in California and now studying the new nerve agent rodenticide. I recently lost my Bengal hybrid to bromethalin with no antidote.

As a permanent resident I believe all the city proposals to deal with the short-term rentals should be adopted without modification.

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James H. Mundy IV is a resident of Coeur d'Alene.