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A group of Naramata residents is pushing for their village to opt in to upcoming provincial legislation limiting vacation rentals, seeking a better balance for their long term rental housing market.
In 2023, the province unveiled new regulations concerning short-term rentals that would see landlords operating in municipalities with a population of 10,000 or more establish primary residency on the property they list on platforms like Airbnb.
Scheduled to come into effect this spring, the legislation also imposes a restriction on the number of short-term rentals per property, allowing only one, either within the main house or as an accessory building.
These measures aim to address the rapid growth of the short-term rental market and to ensure that there is room for locals.
Naramata Slow, a non-profit community group, started a petition earlier this week calling on the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen to have their area included in the legislation. The petition has reached nearly 500 signatures.
Castanet met with three Naramata residents Friday. The three are business owners and Naramata Slow group members, who shared that it has been an ongoing plight for many years to get more structure for short term rentals.
"In the last five years, it's been voiced in our community that there are more and more homes popping up that are rented without having a resident and businesses are having a hard time finding staff in our community with nowhere to live," Nicole Hackworth said.
Back in 2022, the group initiated a petition along with the Naramata Citizens Association, urging a balanced approach to the rental market in Naramata.
They suggested that having one long-term resident on site for every short-term rental.
The group said the 2022 petition had over 800 responses in favour of the adoption of such a bylaw, hoping to see it incorporated into the still unfinished updated Official Community Plan.
According to the draft of the OCP, Naramata's total population is 2,015 people, which is an increase of only 19 residents between 2001 and 2021, while there were 119 'Single Family Dwelling" building permits issued from 2016 to 2021.
Resident Miranda Halladay said one of the issues that always seems to come to the floor is that there is more housing that has been purchased by single owners, but they all seem to be rented out as short term rentals.
"We're not asking that that is eliminated, we're simply calling for a balanced equation, and we feel that this legislation provides it," she said.
"We need [fewer] empty homes and more people living in them all the time," Hackworth added. "People living in them that are here to contribute to our community."
At Thursday's RDOS meeting, many of the rural-area directors seemed to agree opting in would be a good idea for their communities, to ensure they don't become the next hub for buyers just looking for vacation rental cash.
Naramata Area E director Adrienne Fedrigo suggested holding a workshop meeting just for the electoral area board directors to discuss the matter of opting in further. That meeting will take place at a later date.
Should the rural areas wish to opt in, they have until March 31, 2024 to do so in order that the rules to take effect in November 2024. They could also choose to wait a year and opt in in 2025.
The Naramata Slow group members worry that if Naramata decides not to opt in, it will drive more short-term rentals to the area.
"Without people, you don't have a community, and I think that that's the one thing that makes Naramata so special," Halladay said.
"I mean, you can hear people at this park right now. And those people are here because those kids go to the school. Those people that are playing frisbee live here, and those are the same people that come to our community market, they go to community suppers, they support one another.
"When you don't have people that are living here year round, or are only staying here to visit for two weeks or three weeks at a time, those people don't engage and support this place in the same way."
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