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Many Parksville property owners are breathing a sigh of relief after the B.C. government granted an exemption for the popular resort community just over a month before new provincial short-term rental regulations take effect.

Parksville Mayor Doug O’Brien got a phone call from Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon Wednesday morning who told him the approximately 400 properties along Resort Drive — a mix of hotels, motels, multiplexes, cabins and cottages — will be exempted from the new rules.

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“It’s been a bit of a haul, but that’s OK,” said O’Brien, who has been lobbying for the properties built under municipal tourism zoning to keep operating as short-term rentals.

He credited Kahlon and ministry staff for “keeping an open mind and seeking more information” about the situation in Parksville, which doesn’t have enough hotels and motels to meet demand.

Resort Drive was purpose-built as tourism accommodation starting more than 20 years ago, said O’Brien, and if the area wasn’t exempted, it would have had a “huge effect on the economy. It would have removed 44 per cent of our tourism accommodations.”

The new rules, which come into effect on May 1, would require short-term rentals to be in an operator’s principal residence only, or a secondary suite or a laneway home. Municipalities can choose to opt out if their community has a rental vacancy rate of three per cent or more for two consecutive years.

On Wednesday, the province outlined the criteria for exemptions for “strata hotels” and “strata motels,” individually owned strata lots where accommodation is provided in a manner similar to a hotel or motel that are often rented out by the strata hotel or motel, not the individual owner.

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To qualify for the exemption, the strata hotel or motel must have been providing a hotel- or motel-like accommodation before Dec. 8, 2023 and requires the strata hotel or motel to have a staffed front desk on site, employees or contractors that provide housekeeping services for overnight accommodations, and a web platform providing service exclusively for the use of owners offering short-term rentals at the property.

The exemption also kicks in if the facility has been operating like a hotel before Dec. 8, 2023, and has at least one strata lot that can’t be used as a principal residence due to a zoning restriction, a rental management agreement, or a restrictive covenant.

Newly-constructed strata hotels and motels occupied on or after Dec. 8 need to fulfil all requirements. Residential buildings that do not meet the criteria won’t be exempt from the principal-residence requirement, said the province.

O’Brien said city planners told him Parksville qualifies for the exemption under the second criteria because the properties on Resort Drive are zoned as purpose-built tourism accommodation and have covenants in place.

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Another community that was granted an exemption is the resort community of Predator Ridge in Vernon, which is zoned for short-term rentals.

Judy Thomas of the Resort Drive Advocacy Group, which represents property owners and businesses along Resort Drive, welcomed Wednesday’s announcement, but plan to remain watchful until exemptions are formally approved in April.

“All along we were worried we would get an exemption but only for the rental management company as opposed to individual owners,” she said. “We are all a bit wary of the word ‘exemptions.’ It’s all in the fine print.”

Adam Walker, the MLA for Parksville-Qualicum, has been working with the municipality and the advocacy group to fight for the exemptions. Through the process, he has heard from local property owners who felt frustrated by the lack of clarity after the government announced stricter rules on short-term rentals last October.

“These property owners are receiving phone calls every day from visitors cancelling their stay in our community because there’s so much uncertainty,” he said. “People can’t run businesses this way.”

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chchan@postmedia.com

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