Summit County, Colorado — The Town of Breckenridge and Summit County’s regulations on short-term rentals have survived legal challenges so far.
Colorado Politics reports that on July 9th, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang mainly granted a dismissal sought by the Town of Breckenridge of a case brought by homeowners in the ski town. Wang stated that Breckenridge was able to adequately elaborate on the reasoning why they set up these regulations. Judge Wang returned the case to Colorado State Court, where a Summit County Judge will rule on how applicable the lawsuit is to Colorado law.
Here’s what U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang said in her ruling:
“The limitations on STRs in the Ordinances are at least rationally related to controlling associated noise, parking, and waste disposal. Even if, as Plaintiff asserts, the Ordinances will be ineffective or the Town Council (used) unreliable methods to determine the STR zones, such considerations cannot affect the Court’s analysis.”
In 2021 and 2022, the Town of Breckenridge passed a set of ordinances aimed at curtailing the rise of short-term rentals in the Colorado ski town. They set a cap of 2,200 licenses that were divided into four zones around Breckenridge. Some units, like condos and hotel rooms, were exempt from this ordinance. The number of short-term rentals was growing across Colorado due to the rise of Airbnb and VRBO, as one survey found that nearly 14% of residents around Breck had leases terminated due to their landlords converting the unit to a short-term rental.
In response, the Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights was created, representing hundreds of residential property owners in Breckenridge alone. They filed a lawsuit in October 2023 against Breckenridge’s short-term rental regulations. According to Colorado Politics, they argued that these regulations “arbitrary, treated property owners differently based on where they live and violated the state’s prohibition on rent control.”
The Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights argued in their lawsuit that “[Breckenridge] did not rely on or base its decision to cap STR Licenses at 2,200 on any relevant study or analytical data supporting the license cap. Defendant’s actions in the passage of the Ordinances was irrational, arbitrary and capricious and not rationally related to a proper legislative purpose.”
This wasn’t the only court ruling that Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights recently lost.
Summit Daily reported that on June 24th, federal Judge Gordon Gallagher sided with Summit County’s motion to dismiss a case brought forth by the Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights. The order placed a limit on what percentage of homes could become short-term rentals in an area, ranging between 5% and 18%. Some areas are exempt, though, such as “resort overlay zones” like Copper Mountain and Keystone. In their lawsuit, the Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights (they really should have come up with a shorter and less redundant name) argued that Summit County created “successively more severe, wide-ranging, misguided and unlawful regulations.”
Todd Ruelle, a homeowner who joined Colorado Property Owners for Property Rights in the Summit County lawsuit, released the following statement to Summit Daily, signaling that this battle may not be over just yet:
“We disagree with Judge Gallagher’s determination. We are considering potential next steps with our counsel, but it would be premature for me to comment further.”
Image Credits: Ethan Walsweer (Featured Image), Emmanuel Appiah, Mike Gattorna
