“I’m scared if I don’t do something now to protect my assets and my property, who knows what happens in two months, six months, three years, 10 years, 15 years.” Luzier said
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Town of Davis has approved the first short term rental business licenses since lifting the moratorium. A total of 13 locations were issued licenses during their regular council meeting July 10th.
Council Member Jennie Helmick said the Town should require proof that a separate State certificate is issued for each location applied for. “Even though their license from the State may not require that they have the name of every short term rental on it, we should require proof that they applied. Cause otherwise, they could have 10 licenses running under here and only paying taxes and stuff under one without proof,” Helmick said. “So, all I’m asking is that we require proof for each one that they have added to the one license.”
Dustin Luzier from Louie’s Laundry and Apartments, LLC was present at the meeting. Luzier had applied for a business license for seven short term rental locations in Davis. “For instance, I have EIN,” Luzier said. “Louie’s Laundry and Apartments, LLC, that’s my main company. Where I engage in the public is 285 Spruce Street, Thomas, I have one for there, 168 5th Street, here, for my store, and 1685th Street for Louie’s Links. I have to have one for each one of those.”
Luzier said that separate certificates or licenses were not required for rental properties because he would not have those regularly open to the public and constituted a private transaction. “I do not have to have one for each rental location,” Luzier said. “You do not pay separate taxes on those. That’s all to the county as far as what taxes go, but you don’t have to have a separate license or application certificate for each rental location because you are not engaging with the public at that location. Residential, even short term rentals, is not engaging with the public,” Luzier said. “So you do not have to have that, I can assure you.”
Luzier said he did not intent to engage in renting short term rentals, but sought the license to protect his assets in the future. Luzier also said he did not trust the future actions of the Council. “In my location, all my locations I put on there, I never plan to rent short term rentals,” Luzier said. “I don’t plan to rent any of these out short term, but from the actions of what this Council has done in the past, if another moratorium is put in or zoning is ever in place, I want to ensure the value of my property is going to be as good, if not better, than somebody else’s in the long run if its going to be grandfathered in, as was said in the past.”
Helmick said she did not agree with issuing a license to a property that was not going to be used for the purpose stated. “So you are asking us to issue you a municipal business license for a short term rental when you are not operating as a short term rental,” Helmick said.
Luzier said that a license cannot be denied based solely on the fact that he did not intent to currently short term rent. “You cannot deny because you have to have business license before you can ever get started,” Luzier said. “ You cannot deny on the basis of no business or no activity. According to what I know of State code and everything I have read on it, unless there is a certain Town ordinance that says if you don’t do business we can pull your license. I don’t see how you can say, you’re not doing it so we will pull your license.”
Davis Mayor Al Tomson said he agreed with Luzier on the point. “I agree with Dustin,” Tomson said.“We never required that before of anybody.”
Luzier said the decision to apply for the license now as opposed to sometime in the future if he changes his business model, was to be grandfathered in and assure that the option remains open to him in the future. “Its easier now than what it is going to be in the future,” Luzier said. “As long as I pay the business license and I meet all the requirements on that application, I don’t know how you can determine a business from opening or starting and if you’re saying I have to, I mean if I have to kick people out and rent a weekend, I’ll do that if I have to do that. If I have to rent my places out a weekend a year to prove that I am doing that, I can arrange that.”
Helmick said the Town was not like the State and said a license could not be issued for a short term rental if long term renters are in it. “With the Town, we are not like the State,” Helmick said. “We require a business license for every location. If you’ve got a long term renter in there, we can’t issue you a license for short term rental on that property.”
Luzier countered Helmick’s statement by asking if the requirement was on any application or Town ordinance. “Is that on the application?” Luzier said. “Is that in any town ordinance anywhere?”
Tomson said the license could be issued, regardless to the current use or renter status. “I believe, basically, that we can issue you a short term license, short term rental license even though you have a full time resident in there,” Tomson said. “We’ve done licenses to people who were actively renovating their properties, but they were actively working towards making that a rental.”
Tomson went on to say that the Town has never checked or questioned applicants in the past and he saw little reason to begin now. “They say they are going to do a short term rental, we haven’t checked to make sure that they do,” Tomson said. “We haven’t said, ‘Are you going to start next weekend or six months from now?’ We’ve just given them the license and I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it now.
Helmick continued to state that the Town required a copy of the certificate and that they had proof for his three businesses, but there was none for his short term rentals. Luzier replied that the City was asking for the impossible since by State code the short term rentals would be licensed under the LLC name and did not require separate certificates or filings. “There is no such thing,” Luzier said. “You want me to pull something that is not there.”
Luzier said the only reason he had to have a separate certificate for the laundromat in Thomas was because it engages with the public. Luzier also said that all of his units already have short term rental coverage, which is a more expensive insurance policy due to the increased risk of damage from more people being in and out of the units. “I’m scared if I don’t do something now to protect my assets and my property, who knows what happens in two months, six months, three years, 10 years, 15 years.”
Tomson summarized the issue to the Council and recommended approving all the applicants, except Craig O’Connor. “To summarize everything, there really isn’t anything we should do now to prohibit or stop these short term rentals,” Tomson said. “Regardless of what they are doing, except Craig O’Connor’s.”
Tomson said his issue with O’Connor’s application was that it did not appear that there was any active renovation going on and the building was uninhabitable. “I still have a problem with that because it doesn’t have a floor, its dirt, the back is open, there’s no active renovation, there’s nothing being done to make it habitable.” Tomson said. “My argument with Craig O’Connor was that building was just sitting there. He wasn’t renovating it, it was uninhabitable and that was the difference in that one instance.”
Helmick said that the Town could not deny the request if they had approved properties under renovation in the past. “Who’s to say he can’t get a business license and get it fixed and rented out, whatever time he sets forth?” Helmick said. “Isn’t that kind of what we are doing here? So, you can’t deny him either.”
The Council approved the list of short term rentals in full at the meeting with the following business licenses approved:
*Red Spruce Rentals, Mark Moody, 645 Henry Avenue
*Chad Crowe, 38 Riverwalk Place
*Uptown Downtown, Paul Magness, 465 William Avenue
*Fairfax Rental, Melissa Har, 657 Fairfax Avenue
*Craig O’Connor, 676 Henry Avenue
*Fox Aly, LLC, Allie Bodnar, 457 Fox Alley
Louie’s Landry & Apartments, LLC, Dustin Luzier, 461 Thomas Avenue, 166 5th Street, 64 Turek Drive, 822 7th Street, 875 Henry Avenue, 836 Henry Avenue, 840 Henry Avenue (Seven Locations).