County seeks $50,000 grant to inventory short-term rentals and propose permit and fee program

County staff asked the commissioners to support submitting a local capacity grant application to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) that would fund a study and setup of a short-term rental (STR) permitting and tracking program.

Staff said the county is eligible for a $50,000 incentive grant tied to a previously adopted Prop 123 incentive policy. The proposed program would require annual permits for STR operators, collect a fee, and create a county database to locate STR units and verify lodgers-tax remittance. The study would also provide the data needed to set a non-arbitrary fee and to draft ordinance language for formal board consideration.

“It may entice people that aren’t full bore into this to look at doing long-term rentals, which will help increase our workforce stock,” a commissioner said during discussion. Staff indicated any fee and permit ordinance would be forwarded to the county attorney and then come to the board as an ordinance for formal action.

Commissioners expressed support for using data to inform fee-setting and directed staff to advance the grant submission and prepare ordinance language as appropriate.