The Soddy Daisy Commission has taken action to impose a moratorium on the acceptance of short term rental applications for non-owner-occupied rental properties that are not the primary residence of the applicant. Applications will not be accepted after 15 days from Oct. 20 up to and including March 15, 2023. The city of Chattanooga earlier put the brakes on adding new non-owner-occupied STVRs while working on a new code, said Commissioner Gene Shipley. Soddy Daisy will be able to see how they are getting a handle on the rentals before deciding how to handle them.
The vote for the moratorium was unanimous on the second and final reading at the commission meeting Thursday night.
At this time, the city of Soddy Daisy has five short term rentals, with five in operation and two with their applications still in review. Only one of these is owner occupied, said City Manager Burt Johnson. And of the five, only one has filed the paperwork that the city requires. And there is only one that is now paying the occupancy taxes due to the city. Soddy Daisy is supposed to receive a four percent occupancy tax. Currently, the city is receiving about $2,000 each month, but most of that comes from the single hotel in town, he said.
Every seven-eight years, Soddy Daisy enacts a codification and revision of the city ordinances. Metropolitan Technical Advisory Services, (MTAS) assists in the process. All the new ordinances that have been adopted and amendments that have been made to old ordinances during those years, are added to the city codes to update them.
Volunteers in Soddy Daisy are involved in a lot of things that make the city a good place to live. Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful is one of those groups. Founded by Nate and Cindi Sandin and joined by Jim Stewart, the group has been providing a lot of services for the city. They organize days throughout the year to clean up streets and concentrate on different parts of town. They conducted a contest to find an artist for adding public art in the city. And they organized a fall festival and The Great Pumpkin Chase, a 5K run that took place on Oct. 15. The event was at the Ball Fields Park across from Soddy Lake and was considered to be a large success. The weather cooperated and the festival filled the park with about 100 vendors and over 2,000 people in attendance. The next project will be planting trees for Arbor Day.
Mary Tomas is the artist whose design was chosen for the mural that has been painted on one side of Wimpy’s Restaurant. She, along with about 20 volunteers, spent 50 hours on scaffolding and ladders to create the first public art in Soddy Daisy.
The volunteers and city have a collaborative relationship that helps to accomplish what they do, and they rely on help from each other. Mr. Stewart from Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful thanked the commissioners, city manager, police, fire and public works employees for the support they got for fall festival. “It could not have been done without your help,” he said. In their individual reports, each commissioner complimented and thanked the volunteers for the successful event last weekend. Mayor Rick Nunley said the city was appreciative of the amazing people with handicaps that participated in the 5K race with handcycles.
On Nov. 5, the first Saturday of the month, the annual Pioneer Days will be held at Poe’s Tavern Park. The mayor would also like for people who live in the area, to be aware that this year a polling place for early voting only is at the Soddy Daisy Senior Center.