Commission reviews draft extended-stay ordinance; recommends town create new license

Bicknell planning commissioners on the agenda reviewed a draft "extended stay" ordinance and discussed whether the town should create a new, separate license for extended-stay rooms beyond the standard business license.

Members agreed that an extended-stay license would be an additional licensing requirement and asked staff to prepare a draft licensing procedure for town-council consideration. Commissioners discussed Section 3 at length, including suspension and refusal grounds, the administrative hearing process, and required documentation for licensees.

The commission reviewed sample language drawn from other towns. Brock Jackson, community adviser from the R6 Regional Council, said the draft is based on a model used in other communities and that Richfield's ordinance had been a common starting point for similar towns. Jackson told the commission, "This originally comes from Richfield," and said Salina and other towns had adopted similar templates after local review.

Commissioners also discussed enforcement questions that arose during recent work on related camping and nuisance matters. Several members said Sheriff Micah Gully told the town's council he would not enforce certain town administrative or code provisions within incorporated town limits; commissioners said that exchange prompted the town to seek clarification from the attorney general's office. Commissioners agreed the municipality needs a clear enforcement pathway and asked staff to provide options, including whether town code enforcement should be delegated to a town-appointed officer or handled by contract.

The commission spent time clarifying definitions (extended stay versus transient) and reorganizing a long section on "cause" for refusal or suspension; members asked staff to simplify the legal language and to ensure notice and appeal timelines are explicit (including the 10-day period for an aggrieved applicant to request a hearing). Commissioners did not adopt final ordinance language at the meeting and directed staff to circulate a cleaned version of Section 3 with proposed license terms and an enforcement pathway for further review.

No final vote was taken on the ordinance draft; commissioners scheduled continued review for a future meeting and asked staff to consult examples from Richfield and Salina and to forward recommended enforcement language and license-fee proposals to council.