Short-term rental on Mount Morris campus OK’d by Planning Commission

MOUNT MORRIS – An additional zoning option for buildings on Mount Morris’ historic campus that would allow them to be used as limited short-term rental units passed inspection by the Planning Commission.

On Jan. 8, the Mount Morris Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that village trustees amend the zoning ordinance to include C-3: Campus Business District. The vote followed a brief public hearing on the matter.

“What we’re looking at is a zoning that is specific to the square area of the campus,” Planning Commission Chairman Jeff Bold said. “It doesn’t even cross the street.”

The proposed zoning option would not automatically apply to campus buildings. Instead, building owners first would have to petition the Planning Commission and the Mount Morris Village Board and go through a public hearing to have the property rezoned to C-3: Campus Business District.

Currently, the campus buildings are zoned C-1: General Business District.

The ordinance defines a short-term rental as “a separate dwelling unit located within a multi-unit building that has its own sleeping, kitchen and bathroom facilities and is rented for a fee for less than 30 consecutive days and no more than 60 days in a 12-month period to the same occupant. Short-term rentals include vacation rentals.”

Each floor of a building zoned C-3 can have a maximum of two short-term rentals or apartments, per the ordinance.

“It’s designed to be something that, say, someone comes to a concert on a Friday night – they could book the rental for the evening,” Bold said. “We think that’s potentially an attractive use of that property and beneficial to the community because we have very little [lodging options].”

Apartments could not be located on the first floor of a campus building, even with C-3 zoning, but can be on the second floor and above, he said. There still could be no more than two apartments per floor, Bold said.

During the public hearing, a community member asked whether such a zoning option might inadvertently provide a place for “fly-by-night drug addicts” to stay for extended periods of time.

Village President Phil Labash, who attended the meeting as a citizen, noted that the village trustees will retain the ability to reject a landowner’s request to rezone their property to C-3.

“You’re looking at [rental] fees from $150 to $200 a night,” Labash said. “The folks you’re talking about, for a 30-day period, probably wouldn’t be able to afford $6,000. If the plan was to rent the room for $10 a night, I can assure you, that’d be a no-go [from the Village Board].”

The Mount Morris Village Board will review and potentially vote on the proposed ordinance during an upcoming meeting.