Short-term rentals being blamed for everything

Dear Editor:

It very much seems that [short-term rentals] are being blamed for everything bad in the county. What facts do we have?

Policy needs to be built on facts, not blame and jealousy. STR owners are not selling Meth. SRT owners have been building houses and creating the prosperity of Page County for the past 30 years. I know. I live it.

Below are just some of the fake arguments:

Fake argument 1: The premise against STRs are “taking money out of Page County because 53 percent are owned by people that don’t live here” is completely false.

Having built the First Purpose Built STR Log Home in the county, an STR puts [$250,000] of funds into the county before a penny comes out. The money made by the new STR is only made from a market that did not exist before the STR was built. Nothing is “being taken” from Page County. TOT and real estate taxes, and spending is being created.

False argument 2: STRs use more of the roads and cost the communities more money. My properties are in Skyline Lakes. Regina Austin will be the one to bring up this argument and she lives 2 miles from the gate. She goes in and out every day — 350-plus days a year or 1,400-plus miles in and out.

Skyline Hideaway rents my two buildings about 104 to 125 nights a year. One building is one mile from the gate the other is a half-mile away — BOTH COMBINED do not use the resources of a year-round resident. The combined usage in miles of both of my buildings including cleaning servicing personnel is about 750 miles. One year-round resident with one car is 1,400 miles, two cars 2,800 miles — versus two STRs at 750 miles.

False arguments 3: STRs are “changing the character of the neighborhood.” In Skyline Lakes the first home was the Old Breeden Log Cabin that was built by the Long family and rented to the Breeden Family. The people in Skyline Lakes who complain, don’t have log homes. My STRs are Log Homes. I spent 12 percent more per building to build in CHARACTER with the community.

My Hemlock Hollow Cabin was the First ADA compliant STR in the county. I built ADA at a greater expense because I heard Wounded Veterans from the Iraq war were having a hard time getting out into nature. Make the people in Skyline Lakes that make this “character argument” tear down their house and replace it with Log.

Don’t Punish Good Operators: I have operated Skyline Hideaway for 30 Years. I never had a complaint of any of my tenants. Either through: The Sheriff’s Office, the HOA; the Zoning Office, a fire break out from one of my rentals.

How many STR’s are really a problem? We have at least 700 of them. If only seven are a problem, it is only 1 percent. If 70 STRs are problems, then the problem is 10 percent. How Big is the problem?

What Facts do we have to base a judgement upon?

Patrick Burns ~ Stanely, Va.

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