We want to remind you that Sister Bay has a unique list of requirements for license renewal. One in particular is causing STR owners challenges. It requires a DATCAP inspection every 3 years. If your DATCAP inspection is older than 3 years, you have to hire a licensed inspector. We are referencing Sister Bay Ordinance 2023-006, An Ordinance Amending Chapter 18, Business Regulation, Article IV, Short-Term Residential Dwellings. In specific, Section 18.54 (License Application Requirements), item 2.h. Finding an inspector by the deadline for filing for your license has been challenging for some owners.
Current licenses expire on June 30. Applications accepted beginning March 1 for the license year beginning July 1. License requests received later than 45 days prior to the license expiration date are not guaranteed to be approved by July 1st.
There are many other new filing requirements as a part of the new ordinance, so be sure to read the entire ordinance thoroughly before your paperwork is due or you could be significantly delayed in getting your license to rent this year.
If anyone needs an inspection, Jon Olson, an inspector, is offering to have several appointments in a single day and he will give a little discount. His regular fee is $350.00. Contact Holli Kohls and she will coordinate with Jon Olson. Click to Email Holli. To be clear, the inspections are in no way a service of Home Hosts. We are just passing along the name of an inspector that may have capacity and a member, Holli, who has offered to coordinate.
Given Sister Bay’s desire to reduce the volume of STRs as stated in their last Plan Commission meeting, our guess is they will not be very flexible if you miss deadlines or ask for exceptions.
We will advocate for revisions to the ordinance that seem of little value or are unnecessarily onerous, however, board members indicated as we’ve advocated for changes since the ordinance passed, they wanted to see how things went this first year and then consider changes after that.
We need Sister Bay STR owners to be part of the volunteer core of Home Hosts:
- Join our Sister Bay Action Team by emailing Michael Servais (meservais@gmail.com)
- Learn more about what Home Hosts is doing to represent STR owners with local governments.
- Become a member of Home Hosts. We need your support to continue to provide education, professional standards, industry networking and political advocacy.