A Jim Thorpe property owner recently filed an appeal in Carbon County Court over a borough council decision in June to uphold the denial of his application for a short-term rental permit.

According to records, Brian Sargent submitted his application on Sept. 25, 2022, seeking permission to operate a short-term rental at his 1112 Broadview Drive property in Glen Onoko Estates.

On Oct. 17, 2022, the borough’s zoning officer at the time, Matthew Helbers, issued a denial letter, stating that the application lacked required information.

Sargent filed an appeal to borough council on Nov. 15, 2022. Represented by attorney Neil Ettinger, Sargent argued that his property should be considered a lawful non-conforming use and grandfathered in under Jim Thorpe’s recently adopted ordinance regulating short-term rentals.

Ettinger contended that the “borough’s attempt to curtail or limit Sargent’s non-conforming use through the ordinance was not enforceable.”

“Once a non-conforming use exists, it retains its right as a legal non-conforming use,” Ettinger wrote in the appeal. He also cited legal precedents supporting his argument that zoning ordinances cannot “unilaterally terminate or modify a pre-existing non-conforming use.”

In response, the borough said the zoning ordinance adopted on March 11, 2021, explicitly does not list short-term rentals as a permitted use in the R-1 zoning district, where Sargent’s property is located. Therefore, the borough, through its attorney James Nanovic, asserted “the property’s use as a short-term rental was not a lawful non-conforming use.”

Council conducted a June 1 hearing to review Sargent’s appeal.

Attorney Julie Wagner Burkart, representing the Glen Onoko Estates Homeowners Association, said the appeal, “did nothing short of undermine and sidestep the lawful enactment of a short-term rental ordinance by the borough.”

“I understood this to be an appeal of a denial of a short-term rental permit application,” Burkart said. “Now the applicant is posturing for a challenge of an ordinance when they failed to do in a timely manner after it was adopted.”

Burkart said Sargent never established that the property was legally operating as a nonconforming use before the ordinance was adopted in 2021.

“The R-1 residential district does not permit short-term rentals and the application was submitted and denied,” she added. “It is as simple as that.”

Joe Shigo, who lives about four properties away from the home in question, said the borough’s decision was welcome news for residents.

“A lot of times on weekends, people come there and they have no respect for community,” Shigo said. “They come in and think because they are on vacation, they can do whatever they want. They bring in four wheelers and when they are told to stop, they give you the finger or worse. We don’t need this here. It degrades your community.”

Council unanimously denied Sargent’s appeal leading him to take his case to the Carbon Court of Common Pleas earlier this month.

Sargent’s legal team argued that council’s decision was “erroneous and contrary to law.”

Sargent is requesting the court to overturn the decision and authorize the short-term rental as a legal non-conforming use.