Short-term rentals:
Year-round properties under moratorium through March 2017.
Austin City Council votes for moratorium on new short-term rentals.
As part of a bigger crackdown on “party houses” in residential areas, the Austin City Council approved a moratorium on year-round shortterm rental properties.
The 10-1 vote early Friday only impacts “Type 2” shortterm rentals that are rented out year-round and aren’t occupied by the owner. Home- owners who only rent out their home for less than 30 days a year and short-term rentals in apartments or condominiums wouldn’t be affected. (City Council Member Ellen Troxclair was the lone “no” vote.)
Existing short-term rental owners will be allowed to continue operating and renewing their licenses. The moratorium preventing new Type 2 short-term rentals would begin Nov. 23 and end March 2017, unless the City Council votes to extend it.
The council also voted to allow Type 2 applications that had been submitted before Sept. 17 to be approved, even if it that approval comes after November.
That’s to address the flood of Type 2 applications the city received after the council began discussing tougher regulations.
Marcus Elliott, a division manager in the city’s Code Department, said there are currently 20 Type 2 applications that are pending.
Friday’s vote was preceded by more than an hour of testimony from Austin residents, both for and against the ban. Frustrated Austin residents who live near short-term rentals argued that these rentals are operating as mini-hotels in residential areas and bring excessive noise from parties.
But short-term rental owners urged the council to vote against the ban, saying it wouldn’t even address the “party house” problem.
Supporters of the ban argued that by not issuing any more new “Type 2” licenses, the Code Department will have time to enact a package of new short-term rental regulations designed to enhance
enforcement and curb late-night parties held at short-term rentals. The ban’s supporters also said it would help the Code Department more easily identify the homes that are operating without a license.
Nancy Griffith, who lives on Mesa Drive in West Austin, said she lives two doors down from a “party house” and is familiar with their “disruption and destruction.”
These short-term rentals “do not belong in residential neighborhoods,” Griffith said. “Please remember what makes a city great: its homes, families and schools. Not commercial residential properties.”
The short-term rental owners said the council was unfairly applying a blanket policy that affects the entire short-term rental industry based on the behavior of a few “bad actors.”
“What is it going to do? What is it really going to solve?” asked Keturah Havey, an owner of a Type 2 short-term rental house. “If the party houses already have a license, they can keep their license. So you’re not really solving anything.”
The two-hour discussion had a “déjà vu” feel to it because it was the second time the council had debated a shortterm rental moratorium, and it was the fifth council meeting in three months in which the council discussed new regulations for short-term rentals.
There are going to be more hearings on changes to the city’s short-term rental ordinance over the next two months as the city staff begins crafting new ordinances based on earlier directions from the City Council.