The heavy snow didn’t stop the Santa Fe County Commission from getting together Thursday to discuss the future of short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo in the county.
Three of the five Commissioners had to participate virtually in a Special Meeting to hear recommendations from county officials regarding STR’s and what kind of regulations should be in place.
There have been requests by some county residents to ban non-owner occupied dwellings but the commission says it isn’t interested in such a move.
Commissioner Justin Greene says many of the dwellings are second homes of people who live elsewhere and others who do a lot of traveling.
“A lot of those second homeowners are Texans who do not choose to register, or vote or reside officially in New Mexico for tax purposes,” he said. “That could have the same second home statistic as El Dorado with a bunch of retirees that live here as their official first home but spend 179 days a year traveling but choose to live and vote and pay taxes in New Mexico and in El Dorado.”
County Commissioners imposed a temporary moratorium on new non-owner-occupied short-term rentals last year so they can take a long look at the issues and are working on a new ordinance to modernize the regulations.
Issues being discussed include the proper licensing and possible rules including the maximum number of guest overall and per room at one particular time
