The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly is drafting an ordinance to limit all short-term rentals within the borough through a licensing system.
Newly elected Borough Assembly member Dave Johnson, who is also Kodiak’s Harbormaster and Port Director, is proposing a mandate for all short-term rentals owners within the borough to register and obtain a license by July 1 of this year.
This would be the first step in putting restrictions on local short-term rentals. The next step would create an ordinance to establish enforcement and implementation of the license while not allowing any new short-term rentals to open up. And the potential third step would set a cap on how many can operate in the Kodiak area.
The undrafted measure to actually limit the number of short-term rentals is already generating public input.
“I just hope you guys don’t come in and do somethin’ crazy, under the guise of affordable housing," resident Chris Burns said.
Burns, a short-term rental owner in Kodiak, spoke to the Borough Assembly and City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 4 during a joint work session. He said he rents out space within the house he owns. Burns argued that many in Kodiak run short-term rentals out of their extra space to earn extra money. He said people like him are not buying up multiple pieces of property that could otherwise house long-term residents.
There are of course exceptions, like Shoreline Rentals. The local business lists five short-term rentals in the Kodiak area on its website. Owner of the business, Jessica Penaloza, did not respond to KMXT’s email requests for comment.
The borough says there are about 130 short-term rentals within the Kodiak road system, which does not include the separate designation of “lodges” nor short-term rentals in communities off the road system. It didn't provide information on how many owners of short-term rentals live on site.
According to a housing study conducted by the McKinley Research Group in 2022 for the Kodiak Island Housing Authority, there were 4,271 housing units within the Kodiak road system at the time and more than half were single family homes. If those numbers are still accurate, then that would mean roughly 3% of all housing units are used as short-term rentals.
Assembly member Larry LeDoux questioned if short-term rentals are even a factor contributing to the affordable housing shortage in Kodiak.
“I’m sort of reaching a point where I don’t think this is going to contribute adequately," LeDoux said. "I don’t want to create a bureaucracy that’s going to take away the livelihood of many people without knowing exactly how this is going to affect Kodiak and will it really make any difference on the availability of housing."
He said his biggest concern is with the lack of available land to build on. Ledoux was originally in favor of limiting short-term rentals in Kodiak but back tracked from that on Tuesday after he said he spoke to more owners in the community.
“We should be doing more work on (accessory dwelling units), we should be working on land and some of these other areas that I suggested," he stated.
The borough flirted with the idea of easing its regulations regarding accessory dwelling units as another way to help address the housing shortage. But the Assembly indefinitely postponed an ordinance on that topic at its regular meeting on Dec. 19.
During a joint work session on Tuesday, Feb. 4, several city council members referred to short-term rentals as just one piece of the multi-faceted problem that is the affordable housing shortage in Kodiak.
Still Johnson, who is the latest assembly member to advocate for limiting short-term rentals, said his proposal is not a knee-jerk reaction. He said other Alaska communities like Juneau have established similar restrictions to help address their local housing shortages.
“Coastal communities throughout Alaska have considered and or passed regulations pertaining to short-term rentals because they recognize the deleterious effect these are having on their local housing inventory," Johnson explained. "A proposal to license and cap would not eliminate any current, operational short-term rentals, just restrict new entrants into the market until such a time as our community economics could support new, additional entries.”
Johnson cited national research data from the National Bureau of Economic Research that says increased numbers of AirBnb listings lead to increased rent and housing prices locally. But that same research also acknowledged that cities struggling with housing shortages around the country, like Los Angeles, don’t have housing issues because of short-term rentals; they just aggravate those conditions.
The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly is expected to discuss the issue further during a work session later this month on Feb. 13.
