Chip Henderson, Jenny Hill and Darrin Ledford
City Council members are moving toward a vote on an amended Short Term Vacation Rental ordinance, but Chris Anderson of the mayor’s office said city enforcement won’t be ready by the time the new measure would go into effect in early April.
He said the administration is still relying on a June date for implementing the sweeping new rental measure that may include a density cap, an ability for an operator to sell a STVR permit, a new Administrative Hearing Officer and a new STVR Appeals Board.
Councilman Chip Henderson said he would like to end the current moratorium on new absentee rentals as soon as possible. He said it still would take two votes of the council and a two-week period after approval before going into effect.
The council met on the issue on Tuesday and will discuss it again in a week.
Councilwoman Jenny Hill expressed dismay on city enforcement. She said, “Dallas (Rucker, chief city enforcement officer) stood up and said one (staff member) was leaving, another was retiring. . . and then seven million years later.” She said, “Clearly, we don’t have the assertive enforcement needed.”
She said she wants to mesh together components of the Henderson amendments and the administration’s earlier STVR proposal “into one casserole.”
Council Vice Chair Raquetta Dotley said she had a problem with the permit transfer, saying that would grow into a small business of its own of buying and selling permits.
Councilman Ken Smith noted that the Henderson version calls for a five percent cap in a multi-family setting and for a new rental to be at least 500 feet from an existing one in R-1.
He said he has a District 3 constituent who bought 96 R-1 acres in District 1 and is working on several rental cabins there. He said several are within 500 feet of one another. He asked if that would be allowed under the amendments. There was not an immediate answer.
On the issue of whether STVR owners should pay property taxes at a 40 percent commercial rate or 25 percent residential rate, she said it was ruled in 2017 that for absentee owners they should pay 40 percent. She an exclusion of business tax law is an exception for one vacation home.
The only duty this far listed for the Appeals Board is to decide on whether a permit should be transferred in a particular case.
Councilman Henderson said he agrees that certain fees paid by rental owners should go into an Affordable Housing Fund. He recommended a $1,000 permit fee with $250 going to the fund. He said he would not recommend that there be an AH fee on renewals. However, he said all of a $1,000 permit transfer fee would be deposited in the fund.
Councilwoman Hill, who came up with the AH Fund idea, said she favors an AH payment on the renewals as well. She said the rentals are taking house stock out of the market and making it more difficult for residents to find housing.