25 Willow Street - Development Agreement

The owner of 25 Willow Street (PID# 90207861) applied to enter into a Development Agreement (Attachment 1) to allow for a total of two (2) Short-term Rentals (STR) on the lot. The application is to formally recognize the existence and allow for the ongoing operation of the units as short-term rentals. There is no intent to redevelop the property as a result of this application.

The Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) and Land Use By-law (LUB) have been recently amended to regulate and permit short-term rental accommodations subject to specific conditions. The amended LUB allows a maximum of one short-term rental per lot where the short-term rental host resides on-site (as-of-right). However, situations where more than one short-term rental unit is desired and/or where the short-term rental host does not reside on-site, may only be permitted on a case-by-case basis by Development Agreement with consideration to the criteria outlined in the MPS (see Section 3 below).

Short-term Rentals are allowed in all residential, mixed-use, and commercial zones where a dwelling unit is a permitted use. As of the 2021 Census, there were just under 3,600 private dwellings¹ in the Town of Yarmouth. Although additional research is necessary, based on data currently available it would appear that less than two per cent of the total number of units in Yarmouth have been used and potentially are being used as short-term rentals. STRs requested through this application are included within the above noted two per cent estimate.