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Show New nightly rental plan would license lodgings by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer The Park City Council has dumped the planning commission's proposal for guidelines to govern nightly rentals in favor of a plan that would allow visitor lodging almost anywhere any-where in town under a business license-like system. After haggling over the nightly rental issue for more than a year, the council, weary of the topic, Aug. 1 reached a consensus that such properties should be controlled by a permitted-use system rather than by conditional use criteria. By way of definition, permitted use means that holders of rental properties would not have to come before the planning commission to achieve nightly rental status. Under the conditional use system such approval is necessary. Specific language for the newly conceived nightly rental ordinance is being prepared and not expected to be acted upon until Aug. 15. But coincidentally, what has become the test case in the nightly rental matter will again come before the city " council for appeal today, Aug. 8. The house at 395 Deer Valley Road, which has been denied nightly rental status a number of times by the planning commission and twice in appeals to the city council, is again scheduled for appeal to the council. The property, belonging to John Daniels, Mesa, Ariz., is the center of litigation filed in Third District Court against Robert Zigler and Associates Inc. That real estate company sold the house to Daniels as a nightly rental property. Following the sale, the planning commission determined that it was not suitable for nightly rental. It is believed that the third appeal is coming before the council at the urging of the realty company. City Attorney Tom Clyde had previously said that the municipality could be , dragged into the suite because Daniels was denied nightly rental status on the basis of guidelines that were not formally adopted by the city. Daniels second application for nightly rental status was denied on the basis of criteria adopted by the planning commission. Briefly, those guidelines held that nightly rental was conditional on the character of the neighborhood, restrictive covenants cove-nants of a particular neighborhood association, zoning location, easy automobile access, adequate off-street off-street parking and proper maintenance. main-tenance. The planning commission denied Daniels' application because of the home's steep driveway. Previously, Daniels request was denied because the neighborhood covenants restricted restrict-ed nightly rental use. Daniels, however, was successful in changing those covenants. In each instance, the city council upheld the planning commission's denial of nightly rental use. But apparently, the council has grown tired of hearing such appeals. "The nightly rental issue is a giant pain in the rear end," said Councilman Al Horrigan at the Aug. 1 . meeting. He noted the conditional-use system does not work for nightly rental. Councilman Jim Doilney contended contend-ed that nuisance problems are more an issue than nightly rental. He explained that people don't like noisy neighbors whether they live next door to a nightly rental or a property that rents by the month. Currently about 3,900 nightly rental properties exist in Park City, said Councilman Bob Wells. Of those, only about 25 are trouble-some, trouble-some, he contended. Wells suggested suggest-ed that nightly rental properties be ' registered in a fashion similar to business licenses. Under the proposal pro-posal now being drafted as an ordinance, rental properties which become nuisances will have licenses revoked. |