Gilmer County commissioners received recommendations about a short-term rental ordinance for the county.
A group led by Gilmer County Director of Planning Jim Smith put together a proposed ordinance and gathered information surrounding the subject for the board. He presented commissioners with the report at a Sept. 13 work session.
Smith said the recommendations, which are based on an ordinance from Lumpkin County, would give some semblance of structure to short-term rentals in Gilmer County.
“Not only would it solve the recordkeeping we have for all departments, but also it would give a standard to where individuals are renting short-term rentals,” Smith said.
Short-term rentals would be licensed by the county under the ordinance which would allow for better recordkeeping. There is also a penalty process which extends to suspending the license in the case of short-term rentals which do not comply with local laws and ordinances or are chronic with disturbances.
More staff would need to be hired to deal with short-term rentals. He said Lumpkin had two people for licensing and inspections of an estimated 400 short-term rentals.
Smith said the counties looked at by the group also employ outside companies to help maintain accurate lists of short-term rentals in the county.
One such company presented by Smith, Granicus, would help develop and maintain lists of short-term rentals in the county.
Smith said Granicus gave the county a revised estimate of 3,000 short-term rentals in the county. Another company gave a quote based on 1,200 short-term rentals in the county.
Granicus gave a quote of $81,927 to work with the county. A second company, GovOS, quoted $110,014 to service the county.
There are 500 short-term rentals in Coosawattee River Resort alone, said Smith.
Short-term rental owner Doug Rank disagreed with the numbers. He said they can fluctuate based on the criteria used to identify rentals.
Rank spoke out at the board’s regular meeting Sept. 14. He said short-term renters were working with the county in good faith. He decried the need for a company who used various techniques, including artificial intelligence, to identify short-term renters who were not licensed or reported in the county.
Resident Wayne Johnson said the ordinance did not go far enough. He said there was nothing in the proposed ordinance to address the noise, late-night parties, trespassing and indiscriminate use of firearms by renters.
Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris said he felt like the ordinance was too much.
“I think we are overkilling the problems that we have,” he said.
Paris said the county needs to address the problems Johnson is having with renters. He did not think they needed to hire an outside company.
Commissioners agreed the document was a work in process and tabled any vote while they continue to work on the subject.
Other business
﹣ commissioners agreed to have a request for proposal created to develop a master plan for the parks and recreation department.
﹣ continued work on a crypto mining ordinance for Gilmer County.
﹣ set a six month moratorium for electronic billboards in the county.
﹣ raised three objections to the city of Ellijay annexing property on Howard Simmons Road. They said the objections were things they hoped Ellijay would address like taking the portion of Howard Simmons Road adjacent to the property.
﹣ heard from members of the local pickle ball community who were requesting 10 more courts in addition to the four the county has constructed.