HS Alliance
The August 10 event in Orillia will feature speakers from across the region who will discuss their experiences with short-term rentals, visitors
An organization fighting disruptive short-term rentals (STR) in Oro-Medonte is hosting an information session in Orillia.
The Oro-Medonte Good Neighbors Alliance will host speakers at the event, which will take place Wednesday, August 10 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Rotary Aqua Theater in Couchiching Beach Park.
In addition to background information on STRs, including their legality, attendees will hear testimonials from residents of the townships of Oro-Medonte, Tiny and Severn.
Municipal responses to STRs will also be discussed, as the group believes there has been “a lack of enforcement and a failure to protect residential neighborhoods,” as it said in a press release.
The Oro-Medonte Good Neighbors Alliance also noted that STRs “are not a residential land use”, “are not controllable, especially in small rural municipalities” and “do not provide benefits economic to the cantons”.
There will be a Q&A; period during the event.
Speakers will include Jennifer Hierholzer, who along with her husband built a home three years ago on the shore of Georgian Bay. Soon after, a nearby house was sold and started operating as an STR.
“Since then, Tiny Township has failed to protect them from waves of STR visitors,” the statement read.
Gene Stein of Oro-Medonte, president of the Maplewood Ratepayers’ Association, will discuss this community’s experience with STRs.
Tony Mintoff, former deputy deputy fire marshal for the province and former fire chief of Ajax, Markham, St. Catharines and Tiny, who served on the Tiny council from 2018 to 2021, will also speak. awareness.”
Are also programmed to speak:
- Peter Lavoie, President of the Barrillia Park Ratepayers Association and the Oro-Medonte Good Neighbors Alliance.
- Mike Walmsley, a Huntsville resident who is calling for a halt to the issuance of new STR licenses “until the adverse effects on communities can be assessed”.
- David Johnston, professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business and longtime resident of Oro-Medonte.
- Gord Knox, a retired urban planner, who worked primarily in Simcoe County for almost 40 years and appeared as an expert witness before what is now known as the Ontario Lands Tribunal.