The Founding Fathers were specific in their view of government’s proper role: protecting the individual rights of citizens. The Teller County Commissioners have departed from that principle despite campaigning and being elected as Republican conservatives. Their proposed Ordinance No. 23 regulating short-term rentals (STRs) infringes upon individual rights, specifically property rights, and harms the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of Teller County residents. This is particularly disappointing given the commissioners’ own September 2023 statement that the purpose of the STR process would include determining how to “protect the property rights of our residents.” This ordinance achieves the exact opposite. They have opted to violate the rights of the few through arbitrary regulations and in appeasement of pressure-group politics.

Individual rights can sound abstract until government action begins affecting the lives and livelihoods of real people. In preparing this piece, I spoke with several Teller County residents who will be directly affected by these regulations.

I spoke to a stay-at-home mother who worked her way from renting a 50-year-old single-wide in the county to running a successful STR management business. After starting her business, she turned to her preschool moms’ group for help, resulting in several other small businesses created by women who wanted the flexibility to work while spending time with their children. A one-woman business incubator, she indirectly employs more than 30 owner-operators, including cleaning companies, plumbers, handymen, and even a teenager who just recently started a snow-shoveling business.

I learned of a young couple who scraped and saved to invest in one local property as a modest investment that they now face losing. An active-duty soldier who has chosen to turn a primary residence into an STR while deployed, hoping to one day return home to Teller County. A retiree who owns multiple STR units and is already “just getting by”. A main street business owner who has already seen their business noticeably decline following the City’s restrictive STR regulations and predicts that further restrictions could ultimately end their business and livelihood.

In writing this, I could have dwelled on how this grows government and increases the tax burden. It does, by creating an expensive fee structure to fund a brand-new licensing and compliance system. I could have discussed the arduous and expensive nature of the new regulations, such as requiring STR owners to dig up and submit obscure, inconsequential documentation. I could mention petty regulations such as disallowing outdoor signage identifying an STR. I could also discuss the arbitrary STR cap proposed by the ordinance: 10% of all residential properties. You wouldn’t think three “Republican” commissioners would favor interfering with the free market, but here we are.

Violating individual rights, even under the premise of preserving “the broader interests of the community, and the rural character and quality of life,” as stated in the regulation’s preambles, has real human consequences. Teller County Commissioners: return to the founding principles of this country, the principles by which you ran and by which we elected you to office.