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RENTALS
“ e ordinance approved by town council on Oct. 21, 2019, clari ed the de nition of a tourist home as ‘any dwelling, dwelling unit or portion of any dwelling unit rented or leased for valuable consideration to a particular person or persons for periods of time less than thirty (30) days.’”
After “substantial community engagement,” in February this year, Lone Tree City Council approved two ordinances to prohibit the creation of new short-term rentals and regulate e following day, July 20, the “same suspects returned” and allegedly stole a 2017 Honda Accord, per the release.
According to the news release, one of the key incidents was on July 19, when suspects allegedly stole a 2021 Toyota RAV4 from a residential garage in Lone Tree.
Jones said he did not have information on whether the Honda Accord was stolen from the same garage as the Toyota RAV4 or from another location.
“Later, they visited a local convenience store with both stolen vehicles and stole various items, primarily vape products,” the police department said in the release.
“ e next night, o cers spotted the vehicle in the area but managed to evade law enforcement at high speeds.” e police department said the Toyota RAV4 resurfaced in Lone Tree on July 21. It was found abandoned in Lone Tree after reportedly “being involved in a motor vehicle existing ones, the city’s website says.
Jones said Lone Tree o cers tried to pursue the suspects but were not able to get to the vehicle.
Short-term rentals that were established before March 8 of this year are allowed to continue as long as they operate with a city business license, had paid taxes for the past three years of operation and obtained a permit by May 7 this year.
“A business license and short-term rental license are required to operate a short-term rental,” said Nate Jones, spokesperson for Lone Tree.
Short-term rentals that existed before March 8 are only allowed to still operate today if they had a Lone Tree business license before March 8, according to Jones.
And “the ordinance allowed short- crash,” per the release. Further details on the crash were not included in the statement. e IMPACT team is a regional team made up of detectives from Douglas County, Lone Tree, Castle Rock and Parker, according to the Douglas County Sheri ’s O ce. e police department said in the news release that the owners of the stolen BMW tracked the vehicle using a phone and provided information to Lone Tree o cers. term rentals to become current in payment of sales and lodging taxes if they had not been remitting such taxes prior to March 8,” Jones said.
According to the release, suspects stole two additional vehicles — a 2022 Mercedes Benz GLE and a 2020 BMW X5. e news release did not include speci c details about how these vehicles were stolen.
“ e stolen Mercedes Benz was located in Denver, thanks to the efforts of detectives from the Douglas County Regional IMPACT Team,” police said in the release.
“ is led to the safe apprehension of two male juvenile suspects by the Denver Police Department and Colorado State Patrol,” said the release, adding that no further identifying information about the suspects would be released at this time.
Grace period e text of the county’s ordinance regulating short-term rentals says: e Lone Tree Police Department said it will continue investigating these crimes with the assistance of other local law enforcement partners, adding that this group of suspects is allegedly linked to crimes across the metro Denver area.
Just because short-term rentals generally weren’t regulated in unincorporated Douglas County before doesn’t mean they weren’t happening. Airbnb’s website on June 18 showed a handful of listings that appeared to be in unincorporated Douglas County. (Some listings don’t show an exact location on the website’s map.)
A loaded handgun was allegedly recovered from the vehicle.
“I don’t believe, at this time, we have recovered the Honda Accord,” Jones said.
Jones said the police department is asking residents to be more vigilant in locking up their front doors and the access points to their homes as well as making sure their vehicles are locked and secure.
“ e thing that we did note in that string (of crimes) was that people were able to access unlocked vehicles, grab garage door openers and access homes that way,” Jones said.
If residents have any information regarding these incidents, the Lone Tree Police Department asked that they contact Detective Cpl. Je Roepke at 720-509-1143 or via email at Je ery.Roepke@cityo onetree. com.
“Short-Term Rental license applications that comply with the license application provisions herein for existing Short-Term Rental Properties shall be submitted to the County no later than ninety (90) days from the e ective date of this Ordinance.” at provision is in place to provide a grace period for short-term rentals that were in operation prior to the ordinance’s adoption, according to county sta . e ordinance took e ect upon the county commissioners’ approval of it on July 11.
New licenses may still be requested after the 90-day period.
