Bed and breakfast owners and Williamsburg Planning Commission members expressed concerns Wednesday about a proposed city ordinance regarding B&Bs.
The way city B&B laws are now crafted, owners must both live at the business and run it. That means they are prohibited from hiring a manager to run their establishment while they move into another location.
The proposed law would allow owners to do just that: hire a manager to live in and run the business while the owners live at another address, as long as it is within the city’s limits. The latter part of the law is one that received differing opinions.
Commission Member Demetrios Florakis said requiring the owners to still live in city limits prevents people who are “living up north” and want to run B&B in the city from first buying a building and starting the business before they are ready to move down south for their retirement. Ron Watkins, who runs the Colonial Gardens Bed & Breakfast on Jamestown Road, countered he is in the opposite position.
Watkins said it would be nice for him and his wife to have the flexibility to move from his business and still run it in the event his job moved him elsewhere, his wife fell ill or he retired.
Vice Chairman Bill Kafes remained skeptical of B&B businesses all together, reiterating his concerns from a Nov. 20 meeting where he said regulation for the business type is too fast and loose. Kafes said a live-in manager is a “sensitive position” because families with children are patrons of the B&Bs, and employees at B&Bs are held to a lower standard than hotel employees.
“[In hotels] they do drug tests. They do criminal background tests. I doubt they would hire registered sex offenders,” Kafes said Nov. 20.
Debbie Keane, who attended the Nov. 20 meeting, had taken exception to Kafes’ comments and expressed her discontent Wednesday.
“I’d like to educate you all,” she said. “We are small businesses. We are licensed in the City of Williamsburg. We pay business and personal property tax. We are inspected by the board of health, as well as state bed and breakfast associations. We carry liability and probably keep our inns cleaner than most chain hotels in town.”
Joe Bradley, who owns The Inn at 802 on Jamestown Road, also expressed unhappiness after Kafes’ comments, saying they were “incredulous” and showed “disregard for the industry.”
Both Commission Member Christopher Connolly and Second Vice Chairwoman Sarah Stafford showed support for passing the ordinance as it stood. Kafes said he supported the ordinance as long as it included language specifying B&Bs who hire live-in managers conform to “the level of regulation required of a hotel and/or restaurant.” He also said putting the extra clause in the ordinance was “going to kill it anyway.”
“Why would you want to kill it?” Florakis said. “The whole point is to help.”
Commission Member Gregory Ballentine said he was worried the issue had not “been vetted properly” and the commission had not had enough time to explore the topic. Chairman Sean Driscoll said he did not think the issue had a deadline and he felt comfortable tabling it. Florakis said he would like more direction from City Council before making a recommendation.
Lastly, there was talk of adding language in the law that included the case of an owner who lives at the business with a live-in manager. City Attorney Christina Shelton said she would look into the distinction, With a 6-0 vote — Daniel Quarles absent — the ordinance was tabled for next year’s planning commission to pick up.
The 2014 Planning Commission will not include Ballentine, Kafes or Driscoll, as all three are retiring this month. City Council appointed Jeffrey Klee, Justin Shawler and former commissioner Elaine McBeth to the Planning Commission at council’s Dec. 12 meeting. Klee and McBeth will serve through Dec. 31, 2017. Shawler’s term runs through Dec. 31, 2014.
