A Jim Thorpe Borough Planning Commission recommendation could let traditional bed-and-breakfasts operate like short-term rentals in parts of town where council deliberately kept short-term rentals out, borough officials said Thursday.

Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Nov. 12 on a bed-and-breakfast parking amendment, then vote to place it on the December agenda for adoption. But the planning commission sent back a recommendation that goes well beyond parking, and council spent much of its workshop deciding whether or not to attach it.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner, attending by phone, laid out the consequence.

“This could potentially make all traditional bed-and-breakfasts the same as short-term rentals,” Sterner said. “Making this change would open up basically bed-and-breakfast to be short-term rentals in zoning districts where council did not approve them.”

The borough’s zoning code currently requires that the owner or manager of a bed-and-breakfast live at the property. The planning commission recommended loosening that to allow the owner to live on the property “or immediately adjacent” to it.

Owner presence is what separates the two uses under borough rules. Short-term rental operators must be reachable within a set time but need not live on-site. Bed-and-breakfast owners must be there.

Planning commission member James Dougher told council the change grew out of questions about owners whose living arrangements don’t fit neatly. He used his own property as the example.

“There was a discussion about others who have bed-and-breakfasts and who may not necessarily be living on the property,” he said. “Does the owner of the bed-and-breakfast, the operator, need to be on the property, living on the property at all times? What happens if you own a twin? What happens if your house is across the street?”

He went on to describe his own situation.

“I have a twin on West Broadway,” Dougher said. “I live on one side. I operate a short-term rental on the other side. If the short-term rental was actually a bed-and-breakfast, that definition would allow me to operate the bed-and-breakfast. I would be in the immediately adjacent property. That’s where the discussion came from.”

Council Vice President Mike Yeastedt said the recommendation should stay out of next week’s hearing.

“The tenor of the discussion was parking,” Yeastedt said. “If we’re going to consider this, it should receive separate discussion and research, and not be tied into the two.”

Council President Connor Rodgers said the recommendation strayed from what council had asked the commission to examine.

“I believe that’s beyond the scope of the request from the resident that we have,” Rodgers said. “Our intention was never to have this.”

The amendment began with resident Troy Brown, who asked council in August to rewrite the ordinance so bed-and-breakfast guests park off the street. Brown told council the bed-and-breakfast section requires only “adequate parking,” while the short-term rental ordinance spells out a cap on vehicles and requires renter parking on the property rather than in a public right of way.

“There’s no enforceable way now to keep some people off the street for a bed-and-breakfast,” Brown said at the Aug. 13 meeting. “I just would like to have short-term rentals and bed-and-breakfasts be the same. They’re actually the same type of business.”

Solicitor James Nanovic cautioned at the time that the borough’s reach is limited.

“We can mandate that the owner of a short-term rental or the owner of a bed-and-breakfast has to provide adequate parking space,” Nanovic said. “We can’t force people to park there.”

Council voted that night to draft an amendment to the bed-and-breakfast parking section. The hearing was originally set for October but pushed to November when Nanovic could not attend.

The Nov. 12 meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall.