SANDPOINT — It was in October when Sandpoint Councilwoman Deb Ruehle said the short term rental ordinance would "turn into parking," where city officials would have to revisit the ordinance several times.

During City Council's workshop-style meeting on April 16, discussion covered two topics — parking and short-term rentals.

It has been nearly a year since the first public hearing on proposed changes to the city's short-term rental ordinance. One recurring theme has been the 300-foot buffer requirement, which in recent revisions has been removed.

With the removal of the buffer, Aaron Qualls, city planning and economic development director, said a limit of 35 non-owner occupied short-term rentals was added, which will apply across all residential zones in the city.

"That doesn’t apply to any of the mixed-use residential zones or any commercial zone," Qualls said, adding rentals in those zones would still be required to go through the permitting process.

There are currently 22 or 23 non-owner occupied short-term rentals in residential zones, he said, leaving room for more than 10 applicants. When permits top out at 35, anyone interested in renting their home on a short-term basis would be put on a waitlist. There are some exemptions, he said, for developments such as Westwood Village and Condo Del Sol.

The first City Council hearing for short-term rentals was held on June 21, 2017, shortly after House Bill 216 was signed into law. As the law went into effect on Jan. 1, council approved several changes to the ordinance in December following several meetings and hearings on the issue. Some of the approved revisions include consistent licensing throughout all zones, with specific requirements for requirements for residential zones; and elimination of International Building Code Requirements while maintaining certain requirements of smoke alarms, Co2 alarms, fire extinguishers, and emergency egress.

As for the parking conversation, Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon said many sections in the current parking ordinance need revised or removed.

"A lot of them are outdated," Coon said. "They may not apply, so we wanted to clean a lot of those issues up."

Some of the ordinances, for example, were written for the one-way street configuration that no longer exists downtown. Also, the city parking lot, under the ordinance, has a two-hour parking limit. The update would allow 24-hour parking in the lot. It would also be updated to include time limit changes for on-street parking to reflect the current two-, three- and four-hour limits.

Coon said the current code does not allow unattended vehicles to be parked with the engine running. Revisions would allow the unattended vehicle to run as long as it is secured. While Ruehle expressed environmental concerns over changing the ordinance, Coon said it is difficult to enforce, particularly with autostart technology.

Public Works director Amanda Wilson said city staff are also looking at ways to optimize parking downtown. During a recent walkthrough, she said, there was a lot of inconsistency between the "Ls" and the "Ts" in the parallel parking zones.

"Sometimes the length of a parallel spot might be 24 feet, it might be 20 feet — there is just a lot of variance," Wilson said. "And what we’re finding is when those parallel spots are not marked, on one curbline you might fit four vehicles, where if it’s marked you might get six in."

So far, she said, they were able to find an additional 10 spaces with more to go.

This was the first workshop-style meeting for the city this year, and City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said there would be more to come. The purpose of the workshops, she said, is to have a conversation between council, staff and the public before making any "significant" policy or ordinance changes.

"Both of these issues then you’ll see coming back to you in the next council meeting," Stapleton said. "There is no decision made out of these (workshops) other than direction to staff."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.