Condo units in the Timbers can now rent short term

“Who will regulate?”

by Crystal Kotowski

The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council approved a new plat for the Timbers Condominiums that includes an amendment allowing for short-term rentals. The Mt. Crested Butte Planning Commission recommended approval of the second amendment to the plat, as well as 70 percent of the Timbers unit owners.

The original document contained a clause that disallowed rentals for less than 30 days. The short-term rentals amendment does not apply to the seven deed-restricted rentals, as all of the deed-restricted units have been sold.

“If you approve the plat, then you are approving the amendment to the declaration. Just wanted to make you aware of that,” community development coordinator Todd Carroll said introducing the amendment. According to Courthouse Direct, a plat is a legal description of a specific piece of real property and is required if land is to be subdivided for building homes, creating parks, and setting aside rights of way.

The Timbers are the new manifestation of the old Marcellina Apartments, condemned due to water damage in 2014. The Marcellina Apartments had seven units designated as employee housing, and the Mt. Crested Butte town staff mandated seven of the 44 units remained the same in the Timbers.

Councilmember David O’Reilly asked about regulation of housing enforcement and the ramifications of rental abuse.

“I don’t know about that. If we find out about it, we tell them they’re in noncompliance. I know we kind of went through something similar in Homestead, and the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority gets involved,” said Carroll.

“It’s between the town and housing authority. Basically we don’t generally police those units too much as we did before, as they aren’t rental units but owner-occupied units, just like Pitchfork and Homestead are,” said town clerk Jill Lindros. “But once we find out someone is in noncompliance, we come back and reconfirm everything. That’s what we had to do last year with several that were being noncompliant. With rentals, we verify everything to be sure they’re in compliance with the town’s regulations. But not the owner-occupied units… We’ve had some difficulty with noncompliance. We’ve forced one sale in Homestead for noncompliance.”

Councilmember Janet Farmer noted her disappointment that Timbers included the short-term rental amendment, considering the valley-wide housing crunch for local workers.

Councilmember Bill Thompson shared concern with the regulation, asking who would regulate a short-term rental.

“I am pretty much staying out of that,” said Rob Harper of Toad Property Management.

“They’re being rented by the individuals who own the unit. Just like houses. We diligently go through AirBnB and VRBO,” interjected Lindros. She noted they regularly remind the renters of their responsibility for pillow taxes and other regulations for short-term rentals. “Annually, we come up with $10,000 to $15,000 in back taxes from noncompliance,” she continued.

Harper again noted that the vote to include the short-term rental amendment was not contentious, as 70 percent voted in favor of the amendment.

“Well some people voted against it, because you had 70 percent approval… in that location I personally don’t have a problem with short-term rental use,” said mayor Todd Barnes. Harper confirmed that some of the homeowners may not have voted, affecting the percentage of approval.

“I know someone who voted against it,” added councilmember Farmer.

“The Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act allows a set of homeowners to make changes to their declarations. The town is not a party to that, at all. All we do is approve the initial declaration, and away we go. The homeowners of that project have approved to have short-term rentals,” concluded town manager Joe Fitzpatrick.

The Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act went into effect in 1992, with provisions covering topics such as allocating voting power, rights and duties concerning property owned in common by the homeowners association rather than by individual homeowners, alteration and subdivision of units, and easement rights.

According to the Colorado Homeowners Association Law, the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act contains several provisions regarding short-term rentals within common interest communities, such as requiring that restrictions on the use, occupancy, and alienation of units be contained in the declaration. Further, it requires that no amendment may change the uses of any unit without a vote or agreement of at least 67 percent of owners, or any larger percentage as specified in the declaration. It mandates that the HOA does not have the power to adopt rules that restrict the use or occupancy of individually owned units.

The Timbers unit owners are in compliance with the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act in their approval of the short-term rental amendment. The council unanimously voted to approve the plat.