With new county regulations that address short term rentals in the likely final stages before county acceptance, property owners have been squeezing through special use permits under the old rules. 

All projects started prior to adoption of the new rules, which could at earliest be sometime in December, are governed by current regulations.

In September, for instance, commissioners approved SUPs for two short term rentals in one of the hottest areas for AirBnBs and VRBOs — Wapiti.

The two would still be allowed under the current edition of the proposed regulations with an SUP, but commissioners have also considered adding language requirng confirmation of local management of the rentals, whether the owner or a professional company, if the owner is not onsite. 

Short term rentals have been a divisive topic in the county for years, and that opinion has been recorded since well before the new land use and regulations process began. Back in 2019, the county was asking about potential regulation of short term rentals — something a number of cities, including Cody, have already done — and more recent comments have been similar in having a clear divide.

“Short-term rentals are split right down the middle,” Park County Planner Joy Hill said. “There’s the groups that want no regulation of them, ‘Let us do what we want,’ and then there’s the people that want them regulated, but not to the Cadillac degree. They just want some kind of oversight. They want to know that they’re happening. They don’t want them to be disruptive.”

As it was, neither SUP at the September meeting drew too much opposition in areas where short term rentals and other tourism businesses are already well established. The Park County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of both, including one at the end of Wapiti Estates Drive and the other on Stagecoach Trail. Both properties included four bedroom houses to be used as rentals. 

While the Stagecoach Drive property is not far off the U.S. Highway 14/16/20W, the one on Wapiti Estates Drive is actually at the end of a road that feeds a subdivision, although the property itself is outside the subdivision covenant. 

Commissioners agreed, after neighbor concerns, to suggest, but not require, the owners of the property work with the subdivision on a road maintenance agreement. 

A lawyer for the La Luna’s, the owners of the property who intend to move to the home on a more permanent basis years down the road, said they’d be happy to “pay their fair share” as long as they wouldn’t have to join an HOA agreement.