Mt. Crested Butte STR license revised

Elevation, Grand Lodge and Nordic Inn exempt

By Kendra Walker

The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council approved a change to the town’s short-term rental (STR) license program during the May 5 meeting, revising regulations, so that the Elevation Hotel, Grand Lodge and Nordic Inn do not need a short-term rental license.

Back in January, many Grand Lodge residents had concerns about the license and the inspection fee associated with it. The Elevation Hotel and Grand Lodge are condominium properties, but both properties’ Homeowners Condominium Declaration requires that all units must be rented on a short-term basis and have annual safety inspections. The Nordic Inn’s zoning requires that the units be rented on a short-term basis as well.

Therefore, town staff has determined that the three properties should be exempt from all other Mt. Crested Butte condominiums and single-family homes that otherwise require an STR license in order to short-term-rent their properties.

“The original goal was to figure out how we could do one license for the Elevation and one for the Grand Lodge, but looking at how we could administer that, we kept running into hurdles with the one license concept,” said town attorney Kathleen Fogo. “There was a host of issues that made administering and enforcing a one license process nearly impossible to do in a legal simple manner, which is why we came back to how these units are really administered and the safety requirements and evaluations done there on an annual basis.”

One of council’s previous concerns had been the potential for inconsistencies with the inspection of units, but community development director Carlos Velado assured council that the annual inspections on those properties are routinely and properly communicated with town. This includes annual inspections by the fire district and by the state of sprinkler and fire systems, smoke alarms, boiler systems and elevators.

The STR license fee is $200 per unit to cover all necessary inspection, administrative and regulation costs, which will be reviewed by staff and council at the end of the year and adjusted up or down as needed.

Town clerk Tiffany O’Connell noted that some Grand Lodge owners and the Nordic Inn had already applied and paid the STR license fee, and town will be issuing refunds.

Town has received more than 385 short-term rental license applications so far, and applications are due by August 31. According to previous years’ pillow tax licenses, O’Connell says about 200-250 people still need to apply bo August 31.