There were well over 200 people in attendance at the public meeting in Wellington in regards to short-term accommodations in Prince Edward County. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
There were many questions raised about the potential challenges that could come with the introduction of a new short-term accommodations (STAs) provision in Prince Edward County’s official plan.
Well over 200 people attended the public meeting at the Wellington Community Centre on Monday night.
The meeting was to discuss proposed official plan policy changes, as well as zoning bylaw changes, and the introduction of a new licencing bylaw.
Some of the changes include allowing short-term accommodations in certain areas only, permitting a maximum number of STAs in a certain area, enabling revenue generation, not allowing STAs larger than five bedrooms and parking accommodations.
Paul Walsh, Manager of Planning for Prince Edward County. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
Paul Walsh, the Manager of Planning, gave a timeline as to how things will move along following the meeting.
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Staff were asked to look into the short-term accommodations sector in the County in April 2017.
Questionnaires were put to the public, tourism industry stakeholders and agencies such as fire and police services.
There were almost 1,500 responses between April and June of this year.
There were also two open houses held in July regarding short-term accommodations in July.
Mayor Robert Quaiff says this public meeting opened up a good discussion and raised a number of ideas they hadn’t thought of and raised some questions staff didn’t have the answers to.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Lenny Epstein, David Harrison and Dianne O’Brien all declared a conflict of interest and recused themselves from the meeting.
The proposed framework is available online and available for comment.
