Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Short Term Rentals topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mayfield council discusses short-term rentals, business licenses and tax collection
Summary
At a recent Mayfield Town Council meeting officials discussed an unlicensed short-term rental in town, current limits on local regulation, and options including requiring business licenses, geographic limits or a cap on listings to recover tax revenue and limit impacts to long-term housing supply.
At a recent Mayfield Town Council meeting, council members discussed an unlicensed short-term rental in town and options for local regulation, enforcement and tax collection.
Council members flagged a property that has been listed on a short-term rental platform for at least two years and was reportedly used over a recent weekend. Council discussion noted the town currently has no ordinance that specifically regulates short-term rentals or accessory short-term rental units, though town business license and tax ordinances remain in effect.
The council heard that platforms such as Airbnb or Vrbo may collect transient-room taxes in some cases but that collected revenues may have been remitted to other jurisdictions if a host’s business license is registered elsewhere. Council members said the town can immediately enforce existing business-license and tax ordinances, require a local business license for any operator, and pursue tax remittance. The council also discussed longer-term options that would require drafting a local ordinance, including geographic limits (allowing short-term rentals only in designated zones), a numerical cap on licenses, or an outright prohibition.
Officials noted state guidance and recent litigation around short-term rentals in other Utah jurisdictions limit the range of local options. The council asked staff to gather example ordinances from nearby towns that regulate short-term rentals geographically or by number (members suggested Panguitch and Loa as examples) and to report back at a future meeting.
The council did not adopt new rules at the meeting. Instead members directed staff to obtain samples of short-term rental policies used by surrounding jurisdictions, and to prepare information on how the town could use its existing business-license and tax authorities as an interim enforcement step.
Context and next steps: Town staff will collect ordinance examples and return with options for the council to consider, including drafting a local short-term rental ordinance or tightening enforcement through business-license and transient-tax procedures.
