HURRICANE — The Hurricane City Council made a bit of progress Thursday night in its ongoing effort to beef up code enforcement, and some Hurricane property owners can start to expect fines.
After a 45-minute discussion on this old business item, the council voted 4-1 to approve one section of an ordinance update regarding short-term rentals.
“I think it was an important step tonight,” Councilman Joseph Prete said after the vote was taken.
The ordinance rewrite itself is 31 pages long and addresses changes to Chapters 1-4 of the municipal code.
Rather than approve the entire document, council members chose to approve only the one section that deals with code enforcement regarding short-term rentals.
Over the course of the discussion and in a phone conversation with St. George News, Hurricane Mayor Nanette Billings said the vote was important because fines for short-term rental violations will now be treated as an administrative matter rather than a judicial one.
Currently, a violation is an infraction, a criminal penalty enforced by the courts. The new ordinance makes a violation a civil penalty enforced by an administrative fee.
At the moment, the City of Hurricane caps the number of business licenses it allows for short-term rentals at 68. City staff estimated that there are hundreds of people on the waitlist.
These properties do not include casitas, basements or accessory units. Such rentals are not affected by the ordinance rewrite. Rather, the council directed its efforts to the estimated hundreds of property owners in Hurricane who illegally allow vacation and short-term rentals without a license.
“They’re going to be charged $750 per day,” Billings said. “They’ll be fined.”
A lively discussion transpired between council members, with more than one remarking that this issue has been before the council for a long time.
Finally making a decision was not easy.
“The heart of the problem is we haven’t enforced anything since Day 1,” Prete said. “And we’re going to enforce it with the right process. We’ve hired a company to do that.
“And so I just don’t want to throw around this idea that we have a problem and this is the answer that will fix all of our problems because I don’t think it does.”
The issue of short-term rentals relates to others the council is facing daily, like unchecked growth and lack of affordable housing for normal, working-class Hurricane citizens.
“I think it is true that if we can get these nonconforming vacation rentals and get them under control, that does open up some long-term rentals and it does help us with our affordable housing issue,” Prete said.
Billings agreed that the council’s overall goal is long-term livability for its citizens.
“We’re hoping that this will help open up the market to long-term rentals,” Billings said. “Or it will lead to property owners selling their vacation or rental home so people who live in our community who need a home can buy one.”
Councilman Doug Heideman cast the lone vote in opposing the ordinance change.
“I’m against it,” he said. “I think this is just a temporary fix.”
As for the rest of the ordinance rewrite, council members said they will continue to address code enforcement in future meetings.
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