GAMBIER — An out-of-village AirBnB owner expressed concern over Gambier’s proposed short-term rentals zoning code, debating over whether non-Gambier residents can or cannot own and operate a short-term rental.
Kelene Richart, a self titled non-resident AirBnB owner, said she is struggling as the rules keep changing about who can and can’t have AirBnBs.
“I think out thought was if you live in the village you have a vested interest in your neighbors and the daily happenings,” council member Kaitlin Sockman said. “This is a really small village that we live in so you’re able to see the traffic and the number of cars parked and you’re AirBnB if you live close you’re able to manage it with a closer eye and know what’s happening if they live in the village.”
Council member Natalie Wright echoed Sockman’s sentiments, adding it would limit the total number of AirBnBs because there aren’t “many of us who live in the village.”
“So is the purpose of that to have less competition in AirBnBs, or is it more?” Richart asked.
“No, it’s to have few more AirBnBs period. It’s to have more available housing stock for people who want to live here full-time,” council member Alison Furlong said.
Richart’s property, before it became an AirBnB, stayed on the market for two years without a buyer, she said.
“We put quite a bit of money in it. We’ve learned to love the community. We eat with our neighbors when we were there, we have drinks,” Richart said. “But we anticipated that we would make money back on this remodel from renting it out.
“It’s disheartening now to hear that we are not considered part of the community and that for some reason we have less rights than people who do live in the community.”
If Richart were to make her property a long-term rental, she said she’d lose the ability to visit the property in Gambier, lose the ability to have dinner with her neighbors and maintain her part of the village.
“I’m a Kenyon parent 100%, and I know there’s some weird tension between that also in providing housing for the parents and prospective parents, which I will leave for a separate matter,” she said. “But we do feel like we belong to the village and now our choice is either we rent it full-time and can’t be there or we end up trying to sell it.”
Another Gambier citizen Betsy Heer detailed her opposition to allowing non-resident short-term rentals, instead wanting to see an increase in permanent residency in the village.
“I hear rumblings that you’re all going to change what’s actually here for short-term rentals because what is here requires that you live in the village to do this,” Heer said. “It sounds like you’re thinking about changing that back, in which case I will again express my frustration that you will do such a thing because it’s just, there are lots of AirBnBs and I hate to see village housing turn into permanent AirBnB situations for the occasional renter.”
Heer showed a concern for absentee landlords, and worried about AirBnBs staying empty without long-term tenets.
Heer brought up the 2010 to 2020 census where it showed Gambier lost 178 full-time residents.
“We just don’t have a huge village any longer,” she said. “And when all the businesses in the village are completely keyed into when the students are here and when they’re not here they shut down or they limit their hours. All of us who live in the village, we have to pay the price for that because things aren’t open when we might want them to be open.
“So, I just ask you to really consider carefully what you decide to do with short-term rentals because it may not happen today or tomorrow, but eventually people won’t be living in this village anymore. Then there won’t be the services that those of us who live in the village can take care of and you know, can have and that the neighborhoods won’t be what they are.”
Heer also brought up the spike in housing prices, especially in Gambier, wondering if any retirees will reside in the village or if they’re going to sell a house.
At a special council meeting March 25, council discussed the short-term renters zoning code language not including the residency requirement “out of concerns over a lawsuit,” Furlong said. “That there was concern among the three lawyers in the room that we were going to get sued if we allowed only residents to run AirBnBs and not non-residents.”
“If this comes down to residency required or not I don’t consider that any greater risk,” Gambier solicitor Clint Bailey said. “All of it is a risk of trying to regulate in this space generally. I mean maybe we’ll have more potential litigants if we ban a larger number of people who might lose this use that they are intending to put property to in the village.
“So from that perspective maybe there’s a greater chance that we could end up in a lawsuit but on the merits of a claim this doesn’t change the analysis.”
Gambier Mayor Leeman Kessler said as the conversation continues on the zoning code, council will make sure the exact language is clarified by the time of the vote.
Council members relayed what they’ve heard from Gambier residents about short-term rentals, nearly all wanting village residents to own AirBnBs.
“The resident that I have spoken with since we began the readings, I can think of one resident perhaps we didn’t specifically talk about the residency requirement,” council member Rakia Faber said. “Everybody else who has spoken to me about it is in favor of the residency requirement.
“That’s my sense of kind of the temperature of the village on this issue right now.”
Some residents voiced their desire for an outright ban of short-term rental properties, Furlong said.
“On a short-term rentals, I feel like this is a reasonable compromise position.”
Later in the meeting, council decided unanimously to table the zoning vote for next month’s meeting due to the proposed short-term rental changes.
