City seeks volunteers to serve on ADU homestay task force

Press release from the Asheville City Clerk:

The City of Asheville is recruiting a community Task Force to help shape decisions about Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) homestay rentals. The City of Asheville currently does not allow full-home short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods but does permit homestays provided certain conditions can be satisfied. A homestay is a legal form of short-term renting where the owner or resident manager resides on the property full-time. Under Asheville’s current homestay rules, an ADU may not be used as part of a homestay operation; although, ADUs (such as garage apartments and cottages) can be legally used for long-term rentals in residentially zoned areas, with “long-term” defined as anything rented for one month or longer.

Task Force members will be expected to attend approximately six meetings between July and September 2016 to research, discuss and recommend programmatic and land use regulations related to the potential use of ADUs as part of a homestay operation. The Task Force will not be responsible for researching, discussing or recommending changes to either general standards regulating homestays, nor to the position to continue to prohibit whole-house rentals, as City Council recently approved an ordinance (on November 17, 2015) that addresses these issues.

The City seeks a range of collaborative, solution-oriented participants to serve on the Task Force of up to 12 people. The City Council will appoint a group that will work respectfully together to create well-informed recommendations for programmatic and land-use regulations in the Fall of 2016. The City recommends stakeholder groups nominate individuals to apply to represent their collective interests. Applicants should understand both sides of the debate, the vacation home rental industry, the land use process and/or have other pertinent experience.

There will be approximately eight at-large Task Force seats to be filled by members of the community via an application process. The City intends to distribute those seats evenly among:

• Concerned neighbors who are impacted by the ADU short-term rentals
• Members of the community who own, manage or benefit from such rentals
• Renters
• Neutral but interested individuals

There will be four other seats filled by representatives from the following stakeholder groups:

• Asheville Short-Term Rental Advocates
• Asheville Neighborhood Advisory Committee
• Asheville Board of Realtors
• Asheville Affordable Housing Advisory Committee

The above groups will nominate three individuals each from their respective organizations. In June 2016, the city’s Governance Committee will select one representative from each of the four groups to serve on the ADU Task Force.

Regular attendance for the task force is crucial for this effort. The first meeting is anticipated in July 2016.

For questions regarding the application process and application, please contact Maggie Burleson at mburleson@ashevillenc.gov. For questions regarding the Task Force, please contact Shannon Tuch at stuch@ashevillenc.gov.

Deadline for all applications (with responses to the questions below) is Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

Also, with each application, please indicate whether you are (1) a concerned neighbor who is impacted by the ADU short-term rentals; (2) a member of the community who owns, manages or benefits from such rentals; (3) a renter; or (4) a neutral but interested individual.

Additional responses to the questions below MUST BE included with each application:

1. What do you see as the major challenges faced in Asheville’s current housing market?
2. What would you envision as the preferred outcome of this task force?
3. As a member of this task force, it is expected that you will be fair and act in the best interest of
   the larger Asheville community. Please indicate whether you have any conflicts with this
   statement.