I humbly invite anyone who is AGAINST short-term-rental property rights to read my perspective. It may not change your mind, but it will hopefully give you a more comprehensive understanding of another point of view.
Comments on short term rentals: As a long time Short Term Rental property owner in Bridger Canyon and native Montanan, I am obviously passionate about preserving property rights for rental income so my husband and I can continue to afford our little piece of paradise near my childhood home in Bridger Canyon.
But self-interest does not make me wrong about the benefits to our Bridger Canyon community of allowing short-term rentals. For anyone whose first reaction to rentals is negative, I would encourage you to look at the bigger picture and consider your own property rights. Even if you do not plan to ever rent your property short term or otherwise, the right to do so is still extremely important to your property value and economic flexibility as circumstances in life change. Unexpected hardships happen all the time and flexibility to create income to maintain property may be key to keeping your valuable Bridger Canyon land or passing it down to family.
Also, the freedom to determine land use on your own property (within reason) is near sacred for Montanans. No Montanan hates it more than when “outsiders” tell us what we can and can not do on our own land, especially when it has little or no effect on them. As a rural community, most Bridger Canyon homes are separated if not isolated from neighbors so that any impact of who occupies a home (tourist or owner) is significantly less than in town. In those few areas of the canyon where homes are closer together, it may make sense to draw zoning sub-district (like Bridger Pines B-4 sub-district) with specific rental regulations to accommodate a specific neighborhood consensus on land use, like the current areas delineated near Bridger bowl. But it seems extremely unfair for property rights land use to be restricted throughout Bridger Canyon where impact on other owners miles away is near zero.
On the positive side, STRs can benefit Bridger Canyon residents by providing options for visiting family and friends to rent an STR in the canyon rather than a hotel in town requiring more driving up and down canyon roads. Bridger Canyon STRs arguably decrease traffic because tourists stay nearer recreation hot spots like hiking trails, Crosscut and Bridger Bowl Ski Area rather than driving back and forth from rentals and hotels Bozeman. Best of all, STRs increase tourist dollars and tax revenue that support local businesses and help decrease resident taxes as well as help pay for much needed infrastructure development.
Most importantly, STRs promote quality tourists (families and couples) who come to enjoy the great outdoors, spend lots of money in the local economy and then GO HOME.
Let me know your thoughts. – Wendy Dickson
While you alluded to it, let’s be more direct. In some cases the ability to have a STR is the difference between a family or empty nester being able to stay in their home! Working people teetering on the edge or put into a difficult position by inflation and forever rising property taxes, or seniors living on a fixed income need this extra income to make it. Do we want our communities to be solely occupied by the super wealthy, or do we want some diversity of all income levels?