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Staff: tourist rooming-house licenses surged; ad hoc committee to review ordinance
Summary
County staff told the Health and Human Services committee Sawyer County had 599 licensed tourist rooming houses at the end of the renewal period and that license growth has accelerated in recent years; staff will share details with an ad hoc ordinance committee.
County administration staff reported July 9 that Sawyer County is seeing a rapid increase in licensed tourist rooming houses. The presenter said the county recorded 599 licenses at the end of the state renewal period and described growth from roughly 62 licenses before 2009 to the current level.
Staff provided a municipal breakdown: Town of Hayward (86), Town of Len (82), Spider Lake (69), Hunter (64), Round Lake (60) and Sand Lake (58); the City of Hayward showed 13 licenses in department records. The presenter noted ownership patterns: a substantial share of licensees list a local or adjacent‑county mailing address (about 42% by the presenter’s count), another portion are in‑state but out‑of‑county and a portion are out‑of‑state owners across 23 states.
Andy, who introduced the update, said the data will be shared with the county’s tourist rooming-house ad hoc committee to help inform an upcoming ordinance discussion. Staff said they’ve used outside monitoring services to identify unlicensed operators on listing platforms and that the county assumed agent status for these licenses in 2018.
What’s next: the ad hoc committee will review the materials at its next meeting; the committee suggested placing the tourist rooming-house update and related resolutions on a future Health and Human Services agenda.
