The is inquiry was sent by Ken Dufty to Janice Williams, Deputy to the Northampton County Administrator
So my thinking on this matter is that the short term rental ordinance that the subject of public notice and posting last August is not the same, materially and substantively, as the ordinance adopted on the ninth of April, 2019.
As municipalities wrestle with this important and indeed critical issue, most if not all subject the deliberation of the underlying specifics of these rules and conditions as will be embodied in a prospective ordinance to intense, aggressive and inclusive public involvement.
Indeed, included in this effort are workshops, surveys, multiple hearings and open discussions on the implications and perhaps “unintended consequences” of adopting rules and regulations that may fall short of protecting personal property rights and the enjoyment of a rural quality of life that perhaps served as the foundation for investment in a particular zoning district that had safeguards against intrusive uses that may upset or threaten that dynamic.
In my research, which is ongoing, I cannot find one county Short Term Rental ordinance that allows this use in every zoning district by right. Nearly all adopted ordinances that I have researched have different conditions and rules for residential short term rental allowances in residential districts, and have strict notice requirements for all residences within 300′ of an allowed short term rental use.
I will be contacting the Board directly with these concerns and the results of my research, and requesting that this ordinance be rescinded, fully opened up to public input, revised, and then be subjected to new public hearings and input.
That is the way a Representative Republic was and is, to my knowledge, still designed to operate.
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