With one year left in this term, council recently took the opportunity to reflect, refresh, and reset strategic priorities that were established at the beginning of our term. The pace we keep leaves little time for reflection and this was an important day. A portion of the day was spent discussing change: what was anticipated, what was not, and how council responded to emerging issues.
Council regulates. What this means is that council sets the framework on a number of issues for community through bylaws. Bylaws are constructed with the unique needs of community in mind. When council considers adopting new bylaws, it is done with the goal of developing balance between diverse community values and opinions.
The first question that is asked is, “Why is there a need for a bylaw?” Once that is answered, the how comes into play. The finesse comes in designing something that clearly defines what is allowable and what is not.
Council took on some significant regulatory work over the last 18 months to respond to emerging issues including zoning for short-term rentals and medical cannabis business licensing. These were important community issues for a number of reasons. Council recognized that the changes needed to be phased in over a reasonable time to allow the business owners and those affected to have the opportunity to come into compliance. Council also recognized the importance of enforcing the new bylaws to ensure that broader community values were being achieved and to be fair to those that came into compliance with the new regulations.
Here’s a status update on each of these important regulations.
The short term rental bylaw
Why did Nelson need a short term rental bylaw? With the rapid growth of platforms like AirBNB and VRBO, combined with the tight housing market it was important that council consult with the community and put in regulations. The challenge for council was to balance the demand for this type of accommodation by our visitors and the impact on our traditional accommodators, residential neighbourhoods and the availability of rental units for long-term renters. The regulations also needed to be enforceable to meet the intended goals.
This is what we’ve learned since the bylaw went into effect this year. Nelson currently has 94 residential short term rental accommodations. Of those, 46 have now received or are in the process of receiving a business licence. We also found out that education and active enforcement was necessary.
The city purchased Host Compliance software to assist in identifying operators and to make them aware of the regulations. In February, 45 letters were sent out to the operators without business licences, serving 60 days notice to comply. In April, follow up letters were sent giving operators 15 days to comply prior to enforcement. After the 15 day period, bylaw enforcement followed up with 10 operators that continued to operate without a licence. Since then, the city has worked with all 10 operators and all have now applied for business licences or have ceased to operate.
The second round of bylaw enforcement took place in July 2017. Five addresses were identified that did not have a business licence. Warning letters were issued and a further warning will go out. Bylaw enforcement will issue tickets this week. Bylaw enforcement has now begun reviewing the remaining properties that do not yet have an identified address and will work towards identification and enforcement.
The cannabis bylaw
The new Medical Cannabis Regulations came into effect on March 6. Medical cannabis dispensaries were given until September 19th to come into compliance. The why of this decision is more complex. Cannabis regulation is the responsibility of the federal government and dispensaries are illegal at this time. In addition, the Liberal government announced that recreational cannabis will be legalized in 2018. As well, courts of law have determined that residents have the right to access medicinal cannabis.
With federal legalization pending, it seemed rational to wait for those regulations and that is the direction council initially took. Council and Nelson Police continued to monitor the situation. In this climate of uncertainty, medical cannabis dispensaries started opening within the city. Council had the choice of either taking the dispensaries to court to close them down or adopting regulations to better manage community safety and allow access to medical cannabis until the federal and provincial governments put legislation in place. Many in the community felt the mail order system to access medical cannabis was not suitable and asked council to allow and regulate these businesses.
Council chose to regulate and turned its attention to the best practices of other communities who have entered the realm of regulation. The bylaw regulates access to medical cannabis and ensures that the number, locations and security of these premises are managed. The business license fee acknowledges the extra costs in city staff time related to taking on the responsibility to solely regulate these businesses. To date, council has approved issuing business licences to seven dispensaries on the condition they are in compliance with the zoning and the Business License Bylaw. Six are in compliance, have made the necessary security improvements and have paid their fees. The seventh dispensary is not in compliance and council is hopeful that this one will come forward before bylaw enforcement comes into effect this month.
Nelson city council has shown leadership on these issues and our lead is being followed closely by other local governments. We’ve taken on unanticipated challenges with thoughtfulness, grace and the best interests of the community at heart. We will continue this work with the same respectful and vigorous debate to the end of this term.