By Nick Coltrain, Coloradoan –Mountain guide Kurt Johnson picked his home in Estes Park for its sweeping views and quiet wilderness.
His home is attractive for the same reason as the short-term rental across the street — where vacationers frequently begin their revelry as he readies for bed and a 5 a.m. wake-up call.
“Whenever a new group shows up, we’re on edge,” Johnson said. “Are we going to be able to get to sleep when we want?”
Cheryl Anderson relies on the short-term rental of her Estes Park cottage, across the Estes valley from Johnson, for financial security. The professional caregiver poured all the equity from her Fort Collins home into the investment property 14 years ago, only to see her future shaken when a Larimer County regulation threatened to shut it down.
“I invested everything I had,” Anderson said from her rental home’s patio, shortly after prepping it for a new round of guests Thursday. “I got a loan on my house in Fort Collins and spent it all. So when (Larimer County) said they’d shut me down, it was devastating.”
A short-term vacation rental — for renters and those living nearby — boil down to two things: quality of life and making a living.
Larimer County, which has jurisdiction over Anderson’s property, recently stopped three properties from being rented out for less than a month at a time. County commissioner Steve Johnson described it at the hearing as a clear-cut violation of county land use code, which prohibits renting residential properties for fewer than 30 days.
Anderson says she is grandfathered because the ban went into effect after the county had recognized her short-term rental — though a disgruntled neighbor did try to cite the ordinance in an effort to get her to discontinue rental practices. Read More at The Coloradoan
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