Toccoa Commission Tables Extended Stay Ordinance

Toccoa tables a proposed ordinance that would put regulations on hotels and motels in the city that consider themselves extended stay facilities.

At their meeting Tuesday, Toccoa City Commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed extended stay hotel-motel ordinance.

The proposed ordinance includes rules that spell out how many people can stay in a room and how much space must be set aside for food preparation and storage.

Also, the proposed ordinance would also require things like sprinklers, automatic off timers on stoves, and hard wired smoke detectors in extended stay facilities, while also putting rules in place requiring green space and recreation space at extended stay facilities, as well as requiring buffers between extended stay facilities and residential properties.

Tuesday, City Manager Billy Morse also outlined two proposed amendments to the ordinance from the Health Department.

Morse said those proposed changes would allow the Health Department to inspect extended stay rooms for public health issues and also require a list of all extended stay rooms, listed by room number, to be turned into the city by January 1 each year, and not change without city approval.

More than a dozen people stood up to strongly oppose the ordinance.

Many of them said they feel the ordinance is designed to shut down these hotels and motels.

Jennifer Morris said she has been homeless before and would be now if not for these hotels and motels.

“If you all tear these motels down like this, if you all make it to where nobody can stay extended stay, I will be back in the same situation,” said Morris, who said a lot of other people would also end up on the streets if these motels closed.

Meanwhile, David Williamson stays at the Host Inn and said he does not understand why the city is trying to make it harder on these businesses.

“I read in the papers everyday, ‘Keep Toccoa Beautiful’,” said Williamson. “How is shutting a place of business down helping to keep Toccoa beautiful when you all are destroying business?”

Owners of the Country Hearth and Host Inns spoke and said they have needed the extended stay business in order to stay open after the economic downturn and the proposed ordinance would make staying in business harder.

Meanwhile, Daniel Turpin said he feels the city is using this ordinance to force people to check out after 30 days, which would increase hotel and motel tax revenue that the city gets to put towards the Chamber of Commerce and other tourism promotion activities.

Earlier this month, Toccoa City Clerk Fredda Wheeler told the commission that the city was not realizing 40 to 89 percent of possible hotel and motel tax revenue because hotel and motel tax is not collected once someone stays more than 30 days.

That said, Toccoa Mayor Gail Fry said her first concern is safety.

“No one is here to put anyone out of a home,” said Fry. “Our job in the city is to make sure that our citizens are safe and even some of the owners themselves, they have stated that the conditions of the buildings are not up to par, and it is our job as the commission to make sure our community is a safe place to live.”

Meanwhile, Commissioner Jeanette Jamieson said she thinks the solution for these individuals is to just have the hotels check people out after 30 days and check them right back in, avoiding the extended stay ordinance altogether.

“The entire definition of that changes if you check someone out on the 30th day and check them back in,” said Jamieson of extended stay, who said all it takes is a piece of paper.

“I understand (the situation),” said Jamieson of the people who spoke. “My heart is with them.”

Toccoa City Commissioners voted unanimously to table the ordinance to a future date to allow Jamieson’s question to be researched, as well as for the whole ordinance to be reviewed further.