VACATION RENTALS: Enough, already

Three months ago I picked up a report from the city of Coeur d’Alene that had addresses and names of all “permitted” vacation rentals, and I was SHOCKED! There were 236 in the downtown area, with 209 being from Harrison Avenue to Sanders Beach! Fifty of those were applied for in the past year.

There are four in our block, six more in construction mode to be vacation rentals.

I spoke with Kiki Miller prior to this and she stated she was working tirelessly to get this under control, and that part of the problem is there are only two code enforcement employees for the entire city and they don’t have the resources to enforce the rules! Seriously?! Why make rules if you can’t enforce them?

Our downtown has become a “hotel district” on every block! The neighborhoods aren’t thriving with locals working and living downtown, it is a constant turnover of new people daily, disrupting our quality of life, overwhelming numbers of cars parked in front of everyone’s homes, parties, reunions, etc.

PLEASE, PLEASE do something immediately, you can’t change the past, but you can shape the future. Cap the number of V rentals, enforce the existing rules, increase the fines for those that don’t abide, do something!

(Full disclosure): I personally have a vacation rental, studio apartment below our home. The difference is WE live here! If the “owner” doesn’t live nearby, they don’t see and experience the disruption to our lives.

JAN MARIE

Coeur d’Alene