Oro-Medonte resident calls life near short-term rentals “Kafkaesque”

Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw says he also senses frustration among township residents when it comes to short-term rentals in the community.

At the same time, however, he asks them to be patient and to understand that the municipal council is doing everything in its power to solve the problem.

“We have made some decisions that have not been favorable to our future course of action,” Greenlaw said after hearing from two delegations of concerned residents about the STRs at the last council meeting on August 14. “You can’t always predict how the courts will decide or what position the OLT (Ontario Land Tribunal) will take on certain issues.”

“We have not given up,” the mayor added. “We are still looking for a solution that is sustainable and protects our communities and neighborhoods.”

On March 22, Oro-Medonte Township and the Oro-Medonte Good Neighbors Alliance dismissed an OLT decision regarding short-term rental housing in the township.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice said it dismissed the appeal because there was no procedural error and the OLT correctly interpreted the existing zoning bylaw and made no legal error in finding that the 2020 bylaw did not constitute good planning.

Peter Lavoie, deputy mayor of the municipality of Oro-Medonte, says this decision has opened the floodgates for STRs in the municipality.

“We currently have 530 short-term rental operators in the community,” he said during a July 16 community meeting at the Bayview Memorial Park gazebo. “Before the OLT decision, we had 70.”

Greenlaw says the municipality is working on a different strategy regarding STRs, but he declined to disclose it.

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we don’t want to let it out,” the mayor said at the pavilion meeting. “We want to test it and prove that it works before we present it.”

According to Greenlaw, the municipality has spent more than a million dollars to solve the short-term rental problem.

Diana Wells can’t wait to see the council’s new strategy. She organised the council meeting at the Pavilion in July. She also appeared before council on August 14 to reiterate her concerns and ensure the entire council was aware of what was happening on Tudhope Boulevard.

Wells told the council the same thing she told Greenlaw and Lavoie at that meeting.

“Like so many others, their situation is Kafkaesque,” she said of the people living on Tudhope Boulevard near a suspected short-term rental, also referring to the author’s dark and unpleasant storylines from the 20th century.

“They report a disturbance to their respective councillors and are told there isn’t much that can be done because the complaint was made after the incident. So they report a disturbance to the OPP at 2 a.m. and are told the police don’t respond to bylaw issues,” Wells added. “They call the municipal bylaw department and leave a voicemail message or email a complaint and get little response and no further help or action.”

Eventually, she said, many residents simply give up out of frustration and stop reporting the crime.

Wells says this scenario plays out regularly throughout the community.

She is disappointed with the local council because, in her opinion, it has not kept the promises that got it elected.

“Oro-Medonte residents raised this issue in 2019 when over 1,500 people across the township signed a similar petition calling on the council to enforce its zoning ordinance,” Wells said. “People again spoke out loud and clear when we mobilized and came to the polls in large numbers to elect a new council, most of whom supported an agenda that included ending the ongoing operation and proliferation of illegal STRs throughout the township.”

Kim Pressnail also appeared before the city council. He said the municipality could either defend the rights of residents or do nothing and watch the problem grow.

“Some say the community cannot possibly afford to protect our neighborhoods by enforcing the zoning ordinance,” Pressnail told the council. “And I ask you, ‘How can we afford not to?'”