With an eye toward next year’s Sundance Film Festival in Boulder, Erie officials are asking voters whether they would support establishing a new local lodging tax for the town in November’s election.

The potential lodging tax would impact visitors at any future hotels and at short-term rentals — stays of less than 30 days at a time — in the town. Erie does not currently have a hotel, but a plan for new development in the Town Center area off Erie Parkway and County Line Road has included space intended for one.

Before finalizing what the ballot measure would look like, including the tax amount proposed, town officials will gather feedback from Erie voters through a survey to “better understand community priorities, concerns, and gauge overall support for a potential lodging tax,” an announcement says.

The 15-question survey asks residents to indicate their familiarity “with how local government is funded,” and “what amount of lodging tax feels right for Erie,” among other things.

“We encourage all Erie voters to take a few minutes to complete this survey and share your thoughts,” the town’s announcement says, adding that “dozens” of voters already took the survey at the Erie Town Fair over the weekend.

Erie spokesperson Gabi Rae has said town officials believe a lodging tax could be “a pretty simple one to explain and pass with the voters since it is for a hotel that does not yet exist and would tax visitors in the hotel and not residents (unless they stayed in the hotel for some reason).”

In February, Rae said the town would consider a lodging tax for hotels, not including short-term rentals. But that has since changed, she told the Daily Camera this week, “because after doing research, we found that a State statute requires that a Lodging Tax apply to any visitor stays that are 30-days or less. Regardless of what kind of stay.”

“Hotels, short-term rentals — they are all covered by a Lodging Tax by definition,” Rae said in an email. “While we intended to just do a hotel-related tax first and consider a short-term rental tax later, that isn’t actually possible.”

On May 5, the Town Council gave staff a green light to move forward with the survey and education about the possible lodging tax measure. The council will in “late summer” determine whether or not to add the tax measure to the ballot, Rae said.

The Sundance Film Festival will come to Boulder County in January and with it, tens of thousands are expected to descend upon the area. For some Boulder County residents, renting out their home for the days of the event means they could potentially earn a few hundred dollars to more than $1,500 per night.

Separate from the potential lodging tax ballot item, Erie officials also expect to consider an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals, according to Rae.

“The (town’s municipal code) does not currently address this issue. We hope to have the draft ordinance to Planning Commission and Council by late summer. We know we need to have some sort of parameters in place with the influx we expect to see,” Rae told the Camera in April.

Nearby communities including Longmont and Louisville have also seen their leadership discuss rules around short-term rentals — the kind that are typically listed on platforms like Vrbo and Airbnb — regarding the festival.