COEUR D’ALENE, IDAHO – A local group is raising awareness about the City of Coeur d’Alene’s stance on property rights, specifically in regards to short-term rentals. Last year, the city incurred roughly $38,000 in costs conducting evaluations and surveys to buttress adopting further regulation on the industry. The city then passed these costs on to the 630 properties licensed as short-term rentals in the city.
According to Melissa Radford, founder of Cd’A Vacation Rental Alliance, city officials went so far as to set up a local “snitch line” so the community could complain about short-term rental properties. The city included the complaint line phone number on all utility bills mailed to city residents in May 2023.
Facing the prospect of over-regulation on private property rights, Cd’A Vacation Rental Alliance set out to debunk common misconceptions about the industry.
The organization’s research shows short-term rentals are not the neighborhood nuisance that some city planners and council members make them out to be, nor do they raise the cost of housing, which are two of the leading misconceptions. At the same time, the alliance highlighted the benefit short-term rentals provide to the local economy.
“Tourism in region one, which includes Coeur d’Alene … created $1.127 billion in visitor spending in 2021,” Radford shared at a gathering for the Cd’A Vacation Rental Alliance using data from Idaho’s Tourism Economic Impact report. “Nineteen percent of this was contributable to short-term rentals, which means at least $214 million was spent in the local economy directly by our guests.”
Recognizing the economic impact that short-term rentals provide, the Idaho legislature passed laws prohibiting restrictions that specifically target the industry. Idaho §67-6539 says, “Neither a county nor a city may enact or enforce any ordinance that has the express or practical effect of prohibiting short-term rentals or vacation rentals in the county or city.” However, additional language gave municipalities leeway to “implement such reasonable regulations as it deems necessary to safeguard the public health, safety and general welfare.” The City of Coeur d’Alene seems to be justifying their proposed regulations on short-term rentals under the guise of public health and safety, which was originally meant to address issue like water supply, air quality and criminal behavior, none of which have been shown to be negatively impacted by short-term rentals.
Records from the Coeur d’Alene City Police Department from August 01, 2022 through July 31, 2023, show that short-term rentals account for only one percent of the noise and disturbance calls for the city. Apartment complexes are the leading cause of noise and disturbance calls, followed by businesses and city parks.
Radford also shared data compiled by Oxford Economics showing short-term rentals did not negatively impact the housing market. According to its study from 2014-2018, which took into account over 70 different economic variables in over 2,500 US counties, they found that the absence of short-term rentals in a community had almost no effect on housing costs. Specifically, communities without short-term rentals showed a lower housing cost on long-term rentals to be only two dollars per month, and the cost of home ownership only nine dollars less per month.
With the relevant data and supporting law, it remains unclear why the City of Coeur d’Alene is pursuing additional regulation on the short-term rental industry. Tourism remains a significant factor in the city’s economy.
