Boise mayor keeps details of vacation-rental ordinance close to vest as hearing nears
The Boise City Council plans to hold a public hearing on an ordinance for short-term rentals, one of the most hot-button topics among residents in the City of Trees.
But with less than a week before the hearing, a draft of the ordinance has yet to be made public —and likely won’t be until Friday. That’s left some concerned whether that’s enough time for residents and council members to analyze the ordinance for the hearing next Tuesday.
City Council members said in December that Mayor Lauren McLean would bring forth an ordinance providing some regulations of short-term rentals, although details about what would be voted on were not laid out. Not much has changed since, even for some council members.
Council Member Patrick Bageant, for example, said he still hasn’t seen a copy of the ordinance that will go before the public, and that the quick turnaround would make it difficult to analyze beforehand.
“It’s not really enough time,” Bageant said Wednesday by phone. “On a bigger one like this, I think people would be right to be concerned.”
Short-term or vacation rentals, often defined as units rented for 30 days or less, have exploded in popularity thanks to such services as Airbnb, Vacasa and Vrbo. There are more than 1,200 short-term rentals listed across Boise, according to software company Granicus.
Critics say such rentals are worsening the housing crisis across the country and in Boise, which was recently named the most unaffordable city in the U.S.
Chris Runyan heads Protect Boise Neighborhoods, which advocates for short-term rental regulations, and said he would have liked more time to review an ordinance, because residents could then have more time to study it. It’s hard to organize supporters when you don’t know what’s coming, he said.
“Which is a little unfortunate, because we have many supporters who have been asking for this for many years,” Runyan said Wednesday by phone.
When asked if the public would be given enough time, Council President Elaine Clegg declined to comment. She noted that public hearings are not a requirement, and that it’s good the city will be having one at all.
The City Attorney’s Office denied the Statesman’s request for a draft copy of the ordinance. The city rejected the request on grounds that the draft was protected under attorney-client privilege. The office gave the same reasoning when the Boise Regional Realtors asked for a draft, according to emails obtained through a public records request.
But Scott McIntosh, who chairs the Idaho Press Club’s First Amendment Committee, said attorney-client privilege isn’t a solid enough reason to deny that request and that the city doesn’t provide an adequate example.
“The exemptions they (the city) are claiming clearly do not pertain to the record requested,” McIntosh said Wednesday. “And the statutes they’re citing suggest they are denying this request in bad faith.”
McIntosh is also the Opinion Editor at the Idaho Statesman.
The mayor’s office did not respond Wednesday to requests to further explain the legal reasoning for not providing a draft. (Update: On Thursday, after this story was posted, McLean in a written statement defended the city’s denial based on attorney-client privilege but still provided the Statesman with a copy of the draft. The copy closely resembles the November draft posted with the story.)
There may be some clues as to what the public might see in the ordinance on Friday. A copy of an early draft obtained by the Statesman showed the city would require short-term rental operators to obtain an annual city license for each property they own.
The cost of this license was not specified, but the city considered an $80 fee in a previous work session. Operators would be required to give their names and addresses and to provide diagrams of their rentals.
The draft is dated Nov. 24, so it’s not known how much of the text will remain on the final ordinance or what will be changed. Clegg said Tuesday that “nothing is set in stone.”
Boise Realtors demand evidence to support ordinance
Boise is not the only city in Idaho discussing short-term rental regulations.
Sandpoint and Rexburg have each passed their own regulations, while Ketchum has an ordinance making its way through the approval process.
The Boise Regional Realtors and the Idaho Association of Realtors have opposed nearly all short-term rental regulations in the past, largely based on an interpretation of state law that claims such regulations are illegal.
The same appears to be true for Boise’s most recent attempt. Cameron Kinzer, Boise Regional Realtors’ director of government affairs, wrote to the city Dec. 20 asking if the city’s staff had any evidence about the detrimental effects of short-term rentals.
“If those findings reveal that police are unable to reach owners if there is a problem, or complaints about parking, noise, or trash — especially if there are specific properties receiving multiple complaints — why not work to resolve those issues on a case-by-case basis?” Kinzer said.
Kathy Griesmyer, Boise’s government affairs director, wrote back inviting Boise Regional Realtors to a City Hall meeting on Thursday, Jan. 6, so “our housing team can give you an overview of the ordinance before the language becomes public.”
The email was sent days after the city initially rejected the Realtors’ request for a draft because it was subject to “attorney-client privilege.”
A spokesperson from Boise Regional Realtors did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. A full agenda and information packet for the council’s Tuesday, Jan. 11, meeting is expected to be released Friday.
The meeting will take place at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 11, at City Hall.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
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