After a year in the making, City leaders are ready to bring an ordinance regulating short-term rentals, such as Airbnb or Vrbo, to a vote. This was the second workshop session with the Planning Commission on this ordinance after a year of work from the mayor’s appointed Short-Term Rentals Task Force.
During a Planning Commission workshop session Tuesday afternoon, Commission members discussed the short-term rentals draft ordinance. They decided they liked most of it but made a few adjustments.
“My recollection was ... that we pretty much went the distance on it [the ordinance],” said Planning Director Forrest Cotten. “I reviewed the recording. I had to review it several times, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. What I did decide was that no firm decisions were made.”
The Planning Commission picked up right where they left off, further discussing the ordinance from the previous work session with a few minor adjustments for clarity.
The ordinance defines three types of rentals. First, a permanent residence is defined as a dwelling unit occupied by the same individuals for more than 180 consecutive days and is the usual place of return for housing. It is also the individual’s documented housing address as noted in things like vehicle and voting registration.
Second, the definition of a homestay, where short-term rentals come into play, was changed at this meeting from previous meetings.
A homestay is still defined as a type of home occupation where the individual who uses it as their permanent residence can hire out all or part of that residence for lodging.
The key change is that now a resident looking to participate in a homestay does not have to own the residence. This means that someone renting a property and using it as their permanent residence could call it their homestay.
“It’s just like any other type of [home occupation] application,” Cotten said. “The property owner has to authorize the renter for the renter to get the home occupation permit for whatever type of home occupation it will establish.”
In the proposed ordinance, homestays are only allowed in 15 zones including neighborhood conservation, urban core, all urban neighborhoods and all of the corridor redevelopment districts.
The length of time the owner is not in residence while a homestay is in effect is limited based on whether the zone uses the family definition, which is now changing.
At a previous Planning Commission workshop on short-term rentals, several Commission members expressed concerns over the inclusion of zones that use the family definition such as neighborhood conservation and neighborhood redevelopment district.
The family definition is what determines if two or five unrelated occupants are permitted to live in a particular zone. Zones that use the family definition only allow for two unrelated occupants, while zones that do not use the definition allow for up to five unrelated occupants.
Commission members decided to not include zones that are predominantly single-family homes. City staff is working to rewrite the ordinance so as to not include those zones at all in the ordinance.
Commission members discussed rewriting the ordinance to not include zones with single-family homes to be in effect for a one-year trial run and revisited in the future.
Commission members could see this ordinance in front of them as early as their February meeting or as late as their April meeting. It will take City staff some time to rework the ordinance to not include zones with single-family homes.
“There was no general consensus from the [short-term rentals] task force on anything,” said Assistant City Manager Megan Crouch. “There were some minor things [they agreed on], but the reason it’s also before you is to move this issue forward. So decisions need to be made with the information you have.”
Tim Nail contributed to this report.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
