Editor's Note: This letter has been altered since its original publication.
BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response to 'LETTER: Issues around short-term rentals 'much closer to home',' published Aug. 24.
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It’s really unfortunate Barry Sookman does not live permanently in Oro-Medonte as if he did there may be more respect and empathy for his neighbours and residents forthcoming from him.
Sookman, a Toronto lawyer, only cares about Oro-Medonte as a source of rental income.
Residents have a lot of experience with bullying and won’t be swayed from their resolve by such shenanigans as name dropping of big-city law firms. Residents are not afraid and will not be swayed by such tactics.
Besides noise and disruption, residents are adamant as to the need for personal protection and safety in their own homes and Mr. Sookman wants to take this away by bullying.
A bad business model, commercial STRs in residential-zoned areas of Oro-Medonte, supported by a very, very few operators, need to leave the area.
A commercial ghost hotel should be in commercially zoned sections of the township and pay commercial property taxes. Right now the owners pay only residential taxes while they should be paying twice as much, the commercial tax mill rate.
Residents are sick and tired of carrying STR operators with their preferred low tax rate while raking in millions in revenue. Do Sookman and his cronies even declare this as income to the federal Canada Revenue Agency, or are they getting another free ride on the backs of residents, and now want to legalize their activity? It is a no-go. Get-out-of-jail-free cards are not in play.
Canada is a democracy and the majority rules, unlike parts of Eastern Europe. The STR ‘operators’ have had their say and the majority must now rule to end this travesty in Oro-Medonte once and for all.
The free ride is over. People don’t want STRs. People don’t need STRs although some baseless stories suggest STRs are a boon to tourism, which is complete rubbish. I’ve never seen any of these STR guests at the Martyrs’ Shrine, the African Church, the Leacock home, the classic boat museum, and so forth. Probably a good thing to keep partiers off the roads for safety reasons.
Township planning staff, all seven of them (the largest head count among municipalities in Simcoe County), contrary to Sookman’s misinformation, knew of the V1-zoned area near Horseshoe Valley for rentals. Somehow all seven ‘professionals’ missed a key element of zoning protocols at the same time (i.e., if the land is residentially zoned, then land use must also be residential, not the commercial activity as proposed to be legalized).
This is a case for back to school, discovery, diligence and remedial urban planning courses and the opportunity to reduce some costs by reducing the full-time-equivalent head count.
It’s long past due, six years now, for STR operators to pack up your stuff and leave law-abiding Oro-Medonte residents alone and stop the bullying. It doesn’t work. It’s over. You’ve had your fun (and money). Move to commercially zoned areas for your commercial businesses (i.e., STRs). Bye, bye.
Paul Sanderson
Oro-Medonte
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