Council considers a one-year trial of Granicus compliance software to identify and license short-term rentals

Councilmember Hyland outlined research and training on short-term rental regulation and proposed an initial path: purchase (or pilot) a compliance dashboard (from Granicus) to identify active listings, verify addresses with a state-funded module, and bring unlicensed operators into compliance before pursuing substantive land-use policy changes.

Hyland and other councilmembers described the policy trade-offs: owner-occupancy rules can be complex to define and enforce; limiting corporate or institutional ownership (LLCs, trusts) raises insurance and enforcement questions; ADUs present enforcement challenges because many are unreported; and whole-home professionally managed rentals in resort communities sometimes produce fewer nuisance complaints than ad-hoc hosted-room rentals, contrary to initial assumptions.

Hyland said the dashboard includes an address-verification module and that vendors report they can achieve high compliance rates (roughly 90%) by outreach letters and automated tools, leaving only a few egregious cases for prosecution. Council discussed cost-sharing via license fees and the potential to cover annual software costs through new licenses; staff estimated an example: 40 additional licenses at $520 could offset software costs and fee structures could be calibrated after the initial data collection.

Council asked staff to (1) schedule a Granicus demo as soon as council members respond to a poll, (2) consider a one-year pilot contract option, and (3) return with estimates on potential license revenue and enforcement workload before committing to policy changes. No new ordinance was adopted at this meeting; the council emphasized enforcement-first data collection to inform later policy choices.