The Brown County Lodging Association includes owners and managers of many "family friendly" guest establishments in Brown County. We provide an alternative to the standard "motel room" experience for guests to our county.

Brown County taxpayers benefit from our presence through additional tax revenues (over $5 million in taxable real estate value); more jobs (over $100,000 in wages to local residents) and increased tourist expenditures (lodging tax revenues over $500,000 annually).

We believe the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" as it applies to current zoning regulations governing tourist homes. Your ordinance as written recognizes that tourist homes are "permitted uses" in many zoning districts. The ordinance also recognizes that each tourist home exists in an environment unique to its particular neighborhood. Therefore, the Board of Zoning Appeals is given wide latitude to craft its approval to fit each home 's unique circumstances.

While we agree that both applicants and the BZA would benefit by a general set of "guidelines" with regard to features the Board finds desirable in any tourist home application, we don't believe that specific "one size fits all" requirements are appropriate to any special exception request.

As to health and safety regulations, we believe that such regulations should apply to all residential housing units in the county if they are to apply to any such units, as the length of a residents stay should not determine the safety of that stay. You must ask yourself whether the Plan Commission is an appropriate regulatory/investigative body for this type of regulation?

To summarize, we do not believe that costly "permits" which require recurring inspections at various intervals are appropriate in this case. We would also oppose any system which could remove a previously granted special exception without court intervention to protect the property owners rights.

Thank you for your consideration.

Andy Szakaly