Planning commission backs tighter short‑term rental rules, urges grandfathering and grace period

The South Salt Lake Planning Commission voted unanimously to forward a recommendation to the City Council supporting a package of updates to the city’s short‑term rental regulations, including a residency requirement, grandfathering of currently licensed hosts and a limited grace period for nonconforming operators to come into compliance.

Jonathan Weidenhamer, South Salt Lake’s community and economic development director, told the commission the proposal responds to neighborhood impacts such as noise, parties and parking problems and reflects direction from the mayor and city council. "The real reason coming from it has been from the impacts on neighborhoods and communities, residents and their quality of life based on what are typically poor behaved, poorly regulated, poor managed short term rentals," Weidenhamer said. He described an alternative in the staff report that would grandfather existing licensed hosts and also allow the required posting to be placed in a less conspicuous but inspector‑accessible location (for safety concerns expressed by some hosts).

Staff briefed commissioners on several specific elements included in the proposal and the staff report: an owner‑occupancy or residency requirement (the…