Vacation and short-term rentals have taken a new and lucrative shape over the last decade through services such as Vrbo and Airbnb. But a balance between vacation locations and long-term residences is needed to keep housing inventory at sustainable levels, according to city and county officials.

The city of Durango planned ahead for maintaining this sort of balance, but La Plata County is still working it out, said Ted Holteen, spokesman for the county.

Dan Armentano, a planner with the city, said vacation rentals account for about 1.5% of all housing stock within Durango. Mike Segrest, deputy county manager, said about 2% of housing in unincorporated areas of the county are vacation rentals. There were 28,581 residential units in all of La Plata County in 2020, according to census data, of which about 915 were vacation rentals...

Christian Burney, Durango Herald, March 26, 2022