SOUTH FORK — South Fork Town Manager Hank Weber read Resolution 2022-30 during the South Fork Town Board meeting on Sept. 27. It extended the town’s short-term rental moratorium for an additional 90 days. The town put the moratorium in place three months ago in an attempt to slow the growth of short-term rentals in the area until regulations and ordinances can be put in place.

Like several communities throughout Colorado, South Fork is dealing with exponential growth over the last two to three years in the short-term rental market and as a way of slowing the growth chose to put a temporary moratorium in place while they work through ordinances and regulations.

Resolution 2022-30 states, “Whereas, the Town of South Fork Board of Trustees has declared their intent to create new and updates, rules, regulations and ordinances for the future of short term rental within the Town of South Fork and Whereas, the trustees have created a working committee to develop these rules, regulations and ordinances for the future of short term rentals within the Town of South Fork the trustee have determined the need to extend the 90-day moratorium an additional 90 days to continue to address these issues.”

The board opted to hire an ordinance officer and elect a committee to help create the rules and regulations for the short-term rental market earlier this year and have since continued to strategize how to move forward.

Short-term rentals in the town have caused some issues with local businesses including RV parks and hotels and have also taken away from long-term rental options which has increased the need for housing in the area, according to town officials.

South Fork Mayor Tyler Schmidt explained that the committee is looking to create a neighborhood or zone-specific density model that shows where short-term rentals are located in the area and base fee percentages off each zoning district. By creating the zoning districts, the hope is to not saturate the area with a cap fee increase or percentage.

“We haven’t quite finished drawing the lines on the map yet to create the zoning districts but that is the way we are leaning,” town officials stated. “The other thing that has been discussed, amongst the committee, is that we are not ruling out the possibility of the coming neighborhoods that have not been developed yet, sort of steering those neighborhoods to be VRVO friendly. That idea is being kicked around.”

The resolution extending the moratorium as the committee continues to develop details for the future of short-term rentals was passed unanimously by the board with the stipulation that it may be extended again when the 90 days is up in December.