Summit County has the largest percentage of short-term rentals in the state.
Short-term rentals, or STRs, are rentals for less than 30 consecutive days. The market is largely dominated by online marketplaces such as Airbnb and VRBO.
According to data compiled last year by researchers at the University of Utah, 22% of all housing units in Summit County are actively offered for short-term rental.
At a joint meeting of the Park City and Summit County councils on Monday, the Western Mountain Resort Alliance argued that STRs are an important part of the local resort economy.
The Alliance is a consortium of real estate groups in exclusive mountain towns, including Park City, Aspen and Jackson Hole.
Jack Greacen, a housing policy adviser at Allianz, said any short-term restrictions on rents may not have the intended effects, such as more housing for workers.
“As an association, we are really agnostic about regulating STRs,” Greacen said. “But when you start to put the regulatory options on a scale, the consequences of that are very extreme the further you get to the end where we’re looking at either outright bans or caps on regulation within communities.”
Based on research in communities outside the municipality, Greacen concludes that owners of short-term rental units would likely keep their units or leave them vacant if such use were prohibited.
“Ultimately, this will harm landowners in all communities because expropriations have occurred without adequate compensation to cover up the expropriations,” he said.
According to Greacan, a short-term rent restriction could reduce the value of a single property by as much as $600,000.
Summit County is currently looking into regulating the licensing process for short-term rentals. The details of those rules are still unclear, but an outright ban has not been discussed.
About two years ago, the County Council considered adopting a six-month moratorium on STR licenses. The Council rejected the measure after encountering significant opposition from property owners, including the Park City Board of Realtors.
