A system for licensing and registering short-term rentals was passed on March 15 after a three-hour debate and a series of changes that, among other things, reduced the number of properties a person can rent to two.
Assuming Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms approves the ordinance, a burning question is whether the city will approve short-term rentals of properties in areas with single-family zones. In some previous controversies over certain properties, city officials have interpreted long-standing zones as prohibiting purely commercial uses in such zones. The question was not answered in the debate.
Councilor Matt Westmoreland said in a text message after the vote: “The short answer is, the paper passed on Monday sets the framework for regulating short-term rentals. An accompanying document for the zoning must be available for the locations. “He expects short-term rental laws to be filed in single-family, commercial and industrial areas before the licensing system goes live.
This is how licensing works
The newly approved system would allow a home owner or long term renter to license short term rentals to an “agent” who could be himself or another person or organization. The owner or long-term renter could get a license for the property that is their “main address” and another property. The license would be renewed annually with a fee of $ 150.
The Atlanta Police Department would keep a record of all Code violations in short-term rentals that could be fined $ 500. If an agent had three violations of a property, the city would suspend short-term licensing for that property for 12 months. The ordinance defines “short term” as rent for up to 30 consecutive days.
According to the regulation, no external signage of the short-term rental is permitted, but information about the license and the operating rules must be placed inside. The operators would have to pay the hotel / motel tax.
Owners of neighboring properties would have to be informed about a short-term rental license application. Public complaints offices via email and telephone would be set up so that people could report problems with a short-term rental property. Licenses would be non-transferable and the agent would have to notify the city of any change made by the agent to a license within 10 days.
The passage of the regulation was commended in a written statement from Airbnb, one of the largest short-term rental companies.
“By adopting clear and fair rules for short-term rentals, the City of Atlanta enables responsible hosts to continue generating critical income,” said Chloe Myshel Burke, public policy manager at Airbnb, in the statement. “We are determined to be a long-term partner with the City of Atlanta and look forward to working with local executives in enforcing the law and promoting the recreation of tourism.”
Council debate
The regulation was passed without any problems with 14: 1 votes. Alderman JP Matzigkeit of Buckhead’s District 8 said he voted in favor because of the fundamental benefits of the licensing system.
“We really had no way of regulating or taxing short-term rents,” said Matzigkeit, citing the regulation is regulation “and other benefits. How the system will work in practice, he added, “It remains to be seen. We will see how it is implemented. “
Atlanta City Councilor JP Matzigkeit.
The council’s approval came after extensive legal encroachment, with Latzigkeit and several other proposed changes. A major change tacitly made the weekend before the meeting reduced the number of properties an owner or long-term renter can operate from three to two.
Several other key changes – including the complaint line, an increase in the fine to $ 500, and faster notification of agent change – were proposed by Councilor Howard Shook, North Buckhead, who ended up being the sole vote against the ordinance anyway.
Shook sparked long-running talks on regulating short-term rentals last year with its own newspaper seeking to ban such rents entirely in areas designated for single-family homes. His proposal remains on the committee, and he said in an interview that he believes that once the licensing system is approved, he will be as good as dead.
Several other changes proposed by Shook have been declared potentially unconstitutional by the city’s legal department. One of the failed changes attempted to limit the number of visitors guests could have on the property and imposed a curfew requiring guests to be at the property after 11:30 p.m. Another change that enforced a 1,000 feet limit between them would have short-term rental homes that have strayed into the zoning area.
“I voted against the last bill because it did nothing to limit the number of people who could be outside of a short-term rental. Now you could have five or fifty-five, ”Shook said. “And what is more worrying to me is that there is no limit to how many of these can flood a given church. You could have five in a row on a street front. You could have an entire floor of an apartment building. In my opinion, that weakens the fabric of a community. “
Howard Shook, member of Atlanta City Council.
Howard Shook, member of Atlanta City Council.Shook’s zoning suggestions and similar post-vote comments that short-term rents “create holes in the fabric of our neighborhoods” were not well received by some of the other council members.
“It is very important to put in place a system of regulation and incorporate these short-term rents into a tax system that equates them with hotels and motels,” said Councilor Jennifer Ide, whose District is 6 parts of southeast Buckhead, dismissing Shook’s comments as a “tantrum.”
Westmoreland defended the legislation, noting that the city’s neighborhood planning units had reviewed the ordinance and strengthened it with their proposals.
“I don’t think short or long-term rentals create holes in our communities,” Westmoreland said. “The residents use short-term rents to earn a living and continue to live in the city. I think we heard loud and clear that there was no desire to ban them entirely, but instead to regulate them. It’s over. “
Zone and location issues
In the meantime, single-family home zoning remains a licensing and short-term rental issue, Matzigkeit and Shook say.
While some domestic businesses are allowed in single-family home zones, mostly commercial uses – including hotels – are usually prohibited without exception. The city has previously cited the hotel ban in ordering the closures of properties operated solely as short-term rentals, while some operators have complained that they are violating their property rights under the state’s constitution. Last year the city council approved a new “party house” ordinance tightening this rule to make it clear that “large-scale” commercial events in single-family homes are prohibited.
Matzigkeit and Shook say it is unclear whether the city can or will issue licenses under the new system for short-term rentals in single-family areas where the property is not the owner or the main residence of the long-term renter. The ordinance states that any licensed short-term rental must meet zoning requirements, but does not address the single-family issue.
“Nobody knows. If I said I knew, I would be lying,” Shook said of the situation. “… It will be very, very, very interesting to see how the Legal Department interprets this. And if I’ve been sure would be that they would interpret it the way they could interpret it had I not gone through the hell of change on Monday. “
Atlanta City Council member Matt Westmoreland.
Matzigkeit emphasized that the licensing regulation did not change a zone code and said: “What was illegal yesterday is still illegal today.” His own interpretation is that commercial uses are banned in residential areas, but he acknowledged that there is uncertainty about what the city will do in practice. “I don’t know,” he said, as to whether the city can license short-term rents in single-family areas.
The possibility of follow-up to zoning was briefly mentioned by Ide during the council meeting but was not a detailed part of the discussion. Matzigkeit said he was unaware of the forthcoming legislation being described by Westmoreland. “I don’t know about a zoning paper,” he said, noting that zoning changes can be controversial.
Westmoreland said his personal position on the single-family home location issue is to meet the new licensing system’s permit for the use of the primary residence plus an additional home. “That corresponds to my personal thinking,” said Westmoreland.