Council discusses short-term rentals

At its June 29 work session, the Waxahachie City Council discussed a potential short-term rental ordinance.

Shon Brooks, executive director of development services, said short-term rentals can be a home, a garage, a room in the house, an entire floor of a home, a multifamily unit, an accessory dwelling unit, or a vehicle rented to another person for less than 30 consecutive days.

The city’s attorney, Robert Brown, explained to the council that there is no clear guidance on how cities can safely regulate short-term rentals because it centers around a property owner’s rights and their neighbor’s rights. He walked them through a number of legal cases between short-term rental owners and cities in Texas that had regulated STRs in some way. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with short-term rentals,” Brown said. “It’s how short-term rentals are sometimes used.”

The discussion at the work session followed public comments made against short-term rentals by nine people, all from the same neighborhood, at the council’s June 19 meeting. Mike McCorkle shared with the council how, two months ago, a short-term rental opened up next door to his house.

“The home became operational two months ago, boasting a capacity of 20 people and parking for 10-12 cars,” McCorkle said. “Each week and weekend for two months, the home operates without an onsite host and has been rented to a group of 10-20 people who have been a source of endless noise, trash and parking issues.”

“Council, we’re here to put the brakes on them (STRs),” he said. “Numerous cities in Texas are enacting ordinances prohibiting the presence of STRs in single family zoning areas. Additional regulations have to be put in place to ensure the businesses have permits and (are) operating with public safety in mind. We’re asking for immediate adoption of an ordinance prohibiting STRs in our single-family zones and their compliance with all safety aspects – health, fire and all. Our neighborhoods are for families like yours and mine, not hotels.”

Council member Chris Wright pointed out during the work session that he had received emails from other neighborhoods beside McCorkle’s about issues with additional short-term rentals.

Brown shared four different options of how Waxahachie could approach short-term rentals: do nothing; require registration or a specific use permit along with traditional enforcement in the form of noise, littering, parking, public intoxication, and disorderly conduct ordinances; create restrictions based on evidence gathered over several years; or ban short-term rentals. Council members spoke in favor of requiring short-term rentals to get a specific use permit to operate in any zoning area and register their STR annually, with possible fines for violations like excessive noise.

“If we require them to go through the SUP process, like the bed and breakfast, it would give the neighbors the opportunity to contest it,” Council member Patrick Souter said. “At a minimum, it would slow it down.”

“Speaking on behalf of the entire city, I think we should recommend a permit for anyone that’s going to operate one of these,” council member Billie Wallace said. “That way we can get a clear identity on who it is, what they’re doing, who the contact person is. I’m not an advocate for a knee jerk reaction when we have identified one problem, but I do agree that we need to do something.”

“While we understand we have a problem in one area, it doesn’t seem to be a large problem with people being noisy and violating basic decorum. But it does seem to be an issue in other parts of the state, so we need to do something about it,” Mayor David Hill said.

The cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Plano recently passed ordinances to regulate STRs in some way, with Fort Worth requiring an SUP, Dallas banning STRs in single-family residential areas, and Plano temporarily banning STRs while officials determine the best approach for their city.

Waxahachie Chief of Police Joe Wiser shared that in 2019 and 2020, the PD received two calls related to short-term rentals, and in 2023, they have received six to date.

Wallace encourages residents who are experiencing issues with short-term rentals in their neighborhoods to call the police.

“Call the police, and once the police respond, if the noise or whatever the complaint is doesn’t subside, call the police again,” Wallace said. “That’s the only way we’re going to have the documentation that we need to be able do something about it.”

Council also discussed prohibiting STRs from making new reservations for about six months while an ordinance is drafted. Since this was a work session for the council, no action was taken. The matter will be presented to council at a later date. Originally published July 6, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/council-discusses-short-term-rentals/article_6b93bc58-1c1c-11ee-b93c-3350a335f1eb.html