BOISE — A bill that would eliminate cities’ ability to regulate short-term rentals is headed to the Idaho Legislature’s House Business Committee next week.

The bill, House Bill 583, was introduced by four legislators including Representative Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene. In the proposed bill text, a city and county would only be able to enact or enforce regulations “necessary to safeguard the public health.” 

“Basically, it repeals or supersedes, cities' ability to regulate short term rentals at all,” Sandpoint’s Planning and Community Development Director Jason Welker said. “The one sentence in there that really stood out that I just want to read to you, is ‘No county or city shall require a license, fee, permit, certification or registration to operate an STR.’” 

The deregulation of STRs has been a hot topic in Sandpoint following the overhaul of the city’s own ordinance, which removed the numerical cap of non-owner occupied STRs in residential zones. That ordinance of the overhaul was approved, via two tie-breaking votes by Mayor Jeremy Grimm, at the Feb. 4 council meeting. 

Welker and Grimm have cautioned the public throughout the process of the overhaul of efforts at the state level to strip cities of their regulating ability. Both have said the bill is backed by an Airbnb funded lobby, which is using Idaho as a “test case” for complete deregulation. 

"There is no end to their greed and their desire to deregulate, Idaho is being used as a test case right now,” Welker said of the lobby group backed by Airbnb at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in December. “They are seeing if they can get total annihilation of short-term rental regulations in Idaho and then they’ll move on to other states.”  

District 1 Rep. Cornell Rasor, R-Sagle, sits on the House Business Committee and was asked about the issue at a recent town hall in Bonners Ferry. Rasor didn’t answer how he felt about the issue, but said he was aware and heard concerns from the Association of Idaho Cities. 

Fellow District 1 Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, said he had heard the concerns from the city and its residents. Sauter said he was concerned about the bill and would keep in mind what the residents of his district want when voting. 

“It drives the market up, and then you have kind of ghost town neighborhoods as well,” Sauter said. “A good friend of mine lives real close to Memorial Field in Sandpoint and he's surrounded by empty houses.” 

Welker said at the Feb. 4 City Council meeting that the bill could appear in committee as early as next Tuesday. He urged interested residents to sign up to testify remotely against the bill. 

In addition to that bill, Welker said the city-backed lobbying group, the Idaho Resort Cities Coalition, would be introducing their own STR regulation bill in the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee in the coming weeks. 

The agendas for both of those committees can be found at legislature.idaho.gov. The House Business committee mees on odd days at 12:30 p.m. PST.