Duluthians Speak Out Against Short-Term Rental Expansion

City council also votes to close off section of 108th Avenue West that had been used as an illegal dumping site

DULUTH, Minn. – Duluthians spoke out against a proposal that would add more vacation rental properties across the city.

The proposal was a recommendation from the planning commission. It would increase the number of short-term rental permits from sixty to one-hundred.

At the March 9th city council meeting, multiple people spoke against that proposal saying it would make Duluth’s housing shortage worse by taking forty housing units that could be long-term rentals for residents, and instead making them short-term spots for tourists.

“Raising the short-term rental cap allows a few individuals to make a profit while making the community as a whole a poorer place, a worse-off place to live,” said John Krumm of Housing Justice Duluth.

Councilor Joel Sipress agrees. He says an alternative is changing the city’s home-share program so homeowners could rent out their own homes for short periods of time while they’re out of town, such as during Grandma’s Marathon weekend and other tourist-heavy times.

“One alternative that we’re going to be looking at is, rather than raising the cap on vacation rental permits and potentially taking as many as forty housing units out of our housing market right away, instead let’s make it possible for people to rent out their own home a couple of weekends a year without having to get a vacation rental permit,” explained Sipress.

The city council also unanimously voted to close off a section of 108th Avenue West indefinitely. That location has been used as illegal duping site for everything from couches to mattresses.

Council members said that they hope to continue the conversation of how to handle all illegal dumping across the city.