Square Pegs in Round Holes

Regarding the city losing these court cases over vacation rentals, I am reminded about how the city staff chose to proceed down the path that they took.

Years
ago, when this started to become an issue, it was suggested to the planning
staff and the deputy city attorney, during Planning Commission public hearings,
that while vacation rentals were a different thing than long-term housing, they
were not hotels either. It was observed that the city staff was trying to put a
square peg in a round hole by clinging to the illogical position that vacation
rentals are all the same and are the same as hotels.

The
city staff were urged then that the city should craft rules to deal with
vacation rentals as a unique and different type of residential use as many
other communities have done with generally acceptable results. But our city
staff has adamantly refused to deal with vacation rentals any other way than as
a hotel with all of the attendant building modifications, etc.