Short Term rentals - Laconia
 

We are hearing that the planning board in Laconia is about to do an about face on their stance on short term rentals. Heard from a board member (not disclosing their name to preserve their identity) that they are reversing all prior decisions because of the negative impact it will have on the tourist economy and their inability to consistently enforce the ordinance. I have to say I am dumbfounded by the boards stupidity in the first place. Laconia has been a tourist destination for years and homes have been on the market for rent for twice as long. The planning board (all white males between the ages of 68 and 90...with nothing better to do...so much for diversity...) somehow thought it would be a good idea to restrict tourism to the area so that the "local housing supply" wouldn't be bought and home prices driven up. Really?? Their argument was that out of state "investors" were coming in and buying up "all the housing stock in local neighborhoods" for heir own economic gain - renting them out on a short term basis. Again - in Laconia?? Ahh - nope. That's not what's happening. The planning board and those who enforce their decisions (DT) are a laughing stock. So sad that they can't find their elbow from their ace. Lawsuits will be pending from those who sold their property as a result of this ill-conceived ordinance in the first place. Inconsistent enforcement, no plan to consistently enforce, harassment to current owners who rent, favoritism for "small theater owners", the whole thing is a mess. What a disaster. So sad. Laconia could benefit from more forward thinking leaders who are actually interested in building the local economy. It's 2020. Say hello to Uber, Tesla, Amazon and Google...the future is here. Accept it or prepared to be a thing of the past.

Where do I start? There are currently two woman on the planning board. Heard from a member but refuse to name but we are to believe you. The ordinance was put in place to protect year round property owners from no show owners destroying property values. She’ll I continue


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Lol, those facts get in the way of his anti-white male agenda.

I am the last person to be calling out offensive things on this Forum, but this statement has to be the most offensive. Who cares about the demographics of any body? These are people who do a thankless job with little or no pay. For the record, the LPB members are --

•Peter Brunette, Chair
•Edwin Bones, Vice Chair
•Michael DellaVecchia, Secretary
•Charlie St. Clair
•Sarah Jenna
•Jewel Fox
•Fire Chief Kirk Beattie - Administrative Official (City Manager’s designee)
•Alternates: Jay Forester, Brett Beliveau, Stacy Soucy
•David Bownes, City Council Representative
•Richard MacNeill, Ex-Officio Position (City Manager’s designee)

I'm not the world's brightest guy, but Sarah Jenna and Jewel Fox are women!

Anyway, diversity should be diversity of thought, not of demographics. And that is the problem with the handling of events that we are now experiencing. I want the best person doing the job. I don't care about checking boxes.

Are you sure????
 

Whoa Major....in today's day and age you never can tell for certain! :look:
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But might be a dude!

Major, my brother, we agree again! It would be one thing if there was some sort of gender/racial bias angle to this issue. But this is just nasty.

Thank you for making my point
 

You get what you pay for....

It's also nice to have such a large roster
 

It's nice to have such a large roster of planning board members but how many of these folks actually attend meetings regularly and how many of these folks are actually unbiased on the issue and really in touch with the actual issues - is there an attendance record we could take a look at? This "team" is deciding the long term economic benefit of the city? If so - they are very short sighted and ignorant of the facts surrounding the issue. I have yet to see any DATA supporting that housing stock is being bought up by "absentee" owners (which implies owners who don't care about their property and are only in it for the buck...which is BS) and that is what is driving up home prices. OMG - take a look around you - do you live in a bubble? That's a joke and these board members are making decisions based on what - their gut feeling. Please share the data - someone. Short term rentals into the state are bringing millions of dollars to the economy. We are a tourism state - liek it or not. Shutting it down is detrimental to the local economy - if you disagree with that then you need to come out from under the rock you live under. It's no wonder Laconia is headed into the downward spiral of despair that it is. So disappointing...

I'm kind of wondering Greeley
 

A good planning board provides appropriate avenues for, especially, taxpayers to constructively weigh in on issues that are important to them. Have you taken advantage of those opportunities?

Note - the comments you've made in this thread cannot be defined as constructive. Whining, yes. Constructive, no.

Yet again you attack these people with leading questions and innuendo. If you think the Board has been unfair or wrong, by all means let us know why--but it's your task to provide the data instead of just casting aspersions.

Until you do that, you just sound like a guy trying to build a business based on being an absentee landlord, hoping to capitalize on the tax advantages and lax rules that give AirBnB an unfair edge at the expense of local motels and others.

LOL, holy smokes Mr Webmaster, I haven't been here in a while, but WTF??? You certainly have your hands full, thanks for putting up with some of these antics and still maintaining this website.

Very true! Most people have no idea how much work he puts in to maintain order and monitor the website. People who feel slighted because they can't post matters that the Webmaster will not allow PM him with their complaints. People sometimes need to be banned from posting (and he does that too) because they post argumentative, political, or lewd comments.

The Webmaster devotes a substantial amount of time on a daily basis to maintain order on this site and he does a great job at it. Like anything, there are many opinions about what should stay and what should go and I think he does a great job at monitoring and removing unacceptable posts when that is necessary.

There is a lot of great information to be found on this site. We all enjoy reading and learning from it.

I say thank you to him. Keep up the good work!

Especially appreciate that he doesn't allow politics.....that gets ugly

Just to make it clear, local politics are always OK, NH politics are often OK, but national politics are way too far from the intended purpose of this forum and heavily discouraged. If someone keeps bringing up Trump and Biden or General Flynn (yes, I had to squash that several times) they will most likely be unhappy with me.

Destroying property Values?
 

How about raising property values? And for the record - diversity can also mean (and does mean) diversity of thought and opinion, background and age among many other things. My original questions which folks continue to not respond to is... the board is doing an about face on STR and is about to overturn previous decisions. Nobody has addressed this yet...why?

Short term rentals do nothing to raise property values.... nobody wants to live next door to what amounts to an unlicensed motel!

The reason nobody is addressing anything is because the City Council has given no indication that it is going to reverse its policy on short term rentals.

Woodsy

Woodsy, agree fully. Reviewed past meeting minutes of both the planning board and city council and nothing is said about rolling back the rules. I will say there are two renters on my street, both have rented for years. Neither was granted a permit. They continue to rent, with little to no disruption of neighborhood bliss


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