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Vol. 18, No. 45
July 27, 2022
Sentenced pg. 8
KRISTI NIEMEYER
Attorney Doug Wold and son, Clay Wold (foreground), listen as Rocky Point resident Elaine Meeks expresses opposition to a proposed zoning variance that would have allowed short-term rentals in her neighborhood.
Sports pg. 12
Zoning meeting highlights short term rental concerns By Kristi Niemeyer for the Valley Journal
Outfitter pg. 14
POLSON — No one disputed the fact that short-term vacation rentals are proliferating in Lake County at last week’s hearing in the overflowing county commission chamber. But most people in the room and on Zoom were not putting out the welcome mat – especially in the area under consideration for a zoning
variance along Rocky Point and Baypoint roads, northwest of Polson. At the conclusion of last Thursday’s public hearing, commissioners voted to adopt the City/County Planning Board’s recommendations, and to deny the Wold family’s request to overlay a zoning variance that would have allowed for short-term rentals in the area along Rocky Point Road, and imposed regulations to
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govern those rentals. Currently, the county has no regulations in place regarding rentals for periods under 30 days. While those rentals are considered commercial businesses, many of them operate in areas zoned residential, and hence violate local zoning codes. But without any regulations in place, the county has no mechanism to monitor this booming industry. At the onset of the hearing,
Clay Wold, whose family rents their house on Baypoint Road through the summer, told commissioners that at least 500 such rentals are on the market in Lake County, and estimated nearly twice that number could be in operation. Without regulations in place, he said, there’s no way to license or regulate these businesses, or enforce potential violations. His father, attorney Doug
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