*The Dallas City Council recently voted to ban short-term rentals (STRs) like Airbnb and Vrbo in areas with single-family zoning.
“You’re ignoring current zoning and abdicating responsibility,” Dom Thomas told the council, according to a report from WFAA-TV Channel 8, via ESSENCE. “No one is coming forward who lives next to an STR begging you to keep them around.”
“I want to thank the residents who have shown up,” Councilman Omar Narvaez said. “You haven’t given up. You’re fighting for your neighborhoods.”
Around 1,000 single-family STRs might be affected by this decision. They could also face penalties starting in December, ESSENCE reports.
According to the city, about 1,800 short-term rentals were registered in May, that number has reportedly risen to at least 1,910 addresses.
A recent Dallas Morning News report highlights where the city’s “hundreds of registered STRs are and the more than 921 that would have to shut down in the wake of the June 14 City Council vote to ban STRs, or rentals of fewer than 30 days, from single-family neighborhoods,” the outlet writes.
Here’s more from the report:
Only about 200 — or 10% — of the addresses registered with the city are in zones where the city already permits STRs, according to The News’ analysis. Another estimated 790 — or 41% — are in the city’s conservation or planned development districts. Short-term rentals in each of those districts will be examined by the city’s Development Services division, according to Catherine Cuellar, the city’s communications director, and registration will be granted on a case-by-case basis.
“I thought there would be some sort of grandfathering or there would be some sort of carve-out for owner-occupied,” Jeff Veazey, 68, told The News. “That’s really the key distinction here that the City Council totally failed, a total dereliction of their diligence. They didn’t have the courage, intelligence or compassion to deeply understand the problem.”
Veazey and his wife rent out a small STR attached to their home in Old Lake Highlands. Their retirement plans were heavily dependent on the income generated from the apartment.
The banning decision was the result of a number of factors, including zoning and taxes, but also complaints about predatory Airbnb hosts.
Airbnb changed some of its policies in an attempt to become more transparent about fee allocation. As ESSENCE reported, a new pricing feature allows users to see all fees upfront.
“What we’re asking hosts is to do a reasonable task, not ask for anything unreasonable,” Brian Chansky, the company’s leader said in a recent Yahoo interview. “We’re setting new guidelines. And anything a host requests, we want to make sure that’s up front stated so you know what you’re getting into before the booking. So I think the combination of showing an upfront price, showing better values up top, providing more discount tools for hosting, providing better deals and better– more guidelines to provide more reasonable checkout tasks, hopefully people will feel like this is an even more guest-friendly service to them.”
READ MORE: Airbnb Host Goes Viral with Squatter Horror Story | Video
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