{"id":22546,"date":"2015-01-23T07:22:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T12:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=22546"},"modified":"2015-01-23T07:30:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T12:30:37","slug":"council-hears-report-on-short-term-rentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/city-council\/2015\/01\/23\/council-hears-report-on-short-term-rentals\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Hears Report on Short-Term Rentals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>City Council on Tuesday heard a much-anticipated report from staff \u00a0about the complex problem of short-term residential rentals.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22451\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22451\" src=\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/architectcrowd1-336x183.jpg\" alt=\"The Architect Bar and Social House was packed Monday night due to a forum on room-rentals in Raleigh\" width=\"336\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/architectcrowd1-336x183.jpg 336w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/architectcrowd1-771x421.jpg 771w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/architectcrowd1-1170x639.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">James Borden \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Architect Bar and Social House was packed\u00a0earlier this month when a town hall forum was held on Airbnb<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The issue came to light following an anonymous complaint filed against a residential property owner who was renting out his home using the web service Airbnb. This led to a heavily-attended town hall <a href=\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2015\/01\/06\/airbnb-forum-draws-large-crowds\/\">meeting<\/a>, where a large crowd of Raleigh residents turned out to support the room-rental concept.<\/p>\n<p>As defined in the memorandum included with Tuesday\u2019s agenda packet, \u201cThe ease at which a traveler can research and reserve a room online has increased the viability of these rentals. Over the course of the past few years, the popularity of a few websites makes listing, rental and occupancy of single-family homes extremely simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the city council meeting in December, councilors expressed their views surrounding this issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest abuse of this will come in our districts,\u201d Councilor Odom said. \u201cI\u2019m totally against this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was not alone in his criticism of the practice of short-term residential rentals. Other councilors made known that they did not like or condone the practice as well.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13655\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13655\" src=\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/downtown_raleigh.jpg\" alt=\"Depending on City Council, Raleigh could soon see an influx in short-term rental units\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/downtown_raleigh.jpg 640w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/downtown_raleigh-336x224.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">kakissell\/Flickr Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Depending on City Council, Raleigh could soon see an influx in short-term rental units<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe do see this in my district and other districts,\u201d Councilor Weeks said. \u201cWe need to get a handle on this as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After receiving feedback and guidance from city council, staff members researched the issue and looked at how other cities had handled the issue of short-term residential rentals across the nation. Impacts were identified, best practices generated, and recommendations issued.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the causes of concern for the use of short-term residential rentals included increased traffic in the neighborhood, additional parked cars on the street in front of the property, presence of business in a district that does not permit it, increased activity on the property, and potential conflict with other regulations.<\/p>\n<p>City attorney Thomas McCormick stated at the city council meeting in December that the problem is not about the use of technology to link the parties together to rent the room. He said that the problem concerns the violation of zoning regulations that do not permit business in those districts.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Unified Development Ordinance, such activity is prohibited unless the property is located in historic district, historic landmark, or is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21210\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-21210 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/oakwood_house_euclid1-1170x658.jpg\" alt=\"oakwood_house_euclid1\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/oakwood_house_euclid1-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/oakwood_house_euclid1-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/oakwood_house_euclid1-771x433.jpg 771w, https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/oakwood_house_euclid1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jennifer Wig \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Properties located in historic districts are exempt from current regulations regarding business use of residential property<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But in the memorandum included in the agenda packet, there were opportunities listed that would allow\u00a0these short-term residential rentals to continue operating. They include an increased amount of lodging space for travelers, a potential influx of income to property owners and potential additional tax revenue for the city.<\/p>\n<p>Four best practices were identified by staff for the regulation of short-term residential rentals: two concerned changing or creating zoning codes to better regulate the short-term residential rentals; one makes a push for the establishment of a special permit; and the last requires the owner or agent of the short-term residential rentals to reside on the property.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, councilors expressed their willingness to engage with the public on the issue, calling it very complex and worthy of further discussion.<\/p>\n<p>The item was referred to the Law and Public Safety committee, whose members are Councilors Baldwin, Odom, and Maiorano. Its next meeting is on February 10 at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>City Councilors on Tuesday received a report on the potential for short-term rental options within Raleigh, including Airbnb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1503513,"featured_media":13655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1503513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}