When we bought our condo, in 2008, other than the Snowater sign at the entrance, the only other sign said “No turn around”, and the community was about that welcoming. During the recession that followed, when condos and time shares were going into default, the Snowater community decided to encourage more usage as a way to keep the community going. A large sign was erected welcoming people and encouraging them to come check out Snowater. The community was more welcoming at that time too. Now the big welcome sign is gone and we’re back to the unwelcoming community with people complaining STRs are the problem.
Before implementing more rules and requirements for STRs there needs to be a reasonable amount of proof that STRs are actually causing impacts on our community. Are the issues being caused by a few STRs, all the STRs, owners or owner’s friends and family? If we want to change the rules for STRs we need some actual data of the specific impacts (not just anecdotal data). If the problems are truly with just STRs I’m open to adding some rules and restrictions but the issues I see are rare, minor and not just with renters. I admit I have mostly quit going to pools because of owner’s not supervising their children in the pools but that doesn’t mean I want to ban children from Snowater.
It seems that people are wanting to have Snowater to themselves but Snowater is a 27-acre property with 174 units. People love the Mt Baker area and will continue to come here with or without STRs. We use our condo multiple times a year and see an increase in Snowater usage but it’s not impacting our enjoyment of Snowater or the area. We also use our condo as an STR to help defray the costs of the unit but we have never made enough to cover the actual costs of the unit.
And publishing owner’s information is NOT the way to go, it’s petty and vindictive. If there is a problem, I expect the condo association to contact me so I can address it with our rental management company.
