Town of LaSalle looking for resident feedback on short-term rentals

The LaSalle welcome sign can be seen in this photo taken Aug. 14, 2014. (Dan Appleby/ CTV Windsor)

The Town of LaSalle is looking for resident feedback on short-term rentals.

The town, with help from WSP Canada - an engineering consulting firm - are doing a study to look at ways to manage short-term rentals (STRs) in the community.

This could lead to changes in the town’s official plan, zoning bylaws, and additional municipal by-laws.

While there are some STRs within the town, there is no official bylaw to regulate them.

The town is holding a drop-in session this evening at the Vollmer Centre to share more about the study and hear feedback from the community.

Gudrin Beggs, the town’s Director of Planning and Development, says anyone is welcome.

“It’s an open house style, so there’s no formal presentation. There will be a series of poster boards with some different questions, and residents can fill out some different forms that we have asking them for specific comment, and gain information about exactly what a short-term rental is, and the options for regulation.”

She says the town has a small number of STRs documented.

“We’re not typically a tourist destination just set, so we don’t have a large, robust inventory of STRs, but it is something that’s on the radar. But the regulatory options do include the development of a bylaw, so we will be exploring the need for that in our community.”

She says they’re looking at other areas to see how the bylaw could work.

“Exploring those best practices and our area municipalities as well as other municipalities outside our Essex County region that have implemented successful STR regulations. So we are looking to our neighbours, as well as further afield to understand best practices and how we can set up a program for regulation for success.”

The information session will run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Vollmer Centre on Laurier Parkway.

Beggs says the information gathered from the public information session will be documented in a report and will be presented to council in November.

The Town of Kingsville, the Town of Essex, the Town of Amherstburg, and the City of Windsor all have short-term rental bylaws.

The Town of Tecumseh and the Municipality of Leamington do not have bylaw regulating STRs. And the Municipality of Lakeshore banned new short-term rental accommodations in 2023, with existing STRs subject to the same regulations as Bed and Breakfasts.