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On Tuesday, the LaGrange City Council called for a public hearing on Oct. 8 to hear comments from the public on a proposed ordinance to regulate short-term rentals, commonly known as AirBnBs or VRBOs.

The proposed ordinance follows recommendations from the planning board to set a series of regulations for all new short-term rentals, which can be permitted by city staff as long as they follow eligibility requirements. The proposed ordinance stops short of requiring a special use permit for short-term rentals, which would have required a public hearing for each new rental property.

City Planner Mark Kostial highlighted the major points of the proposed short-term rental ordinance during the council work session on Tuesday morning.  

Under the proposed rules, short-term rentals would only be allowed in single-family detached homes within Estate Single-Family Residential (ES-R), Suburban Single-Family Residential (SU-R), Traditional Neighborhood Residential (TN-R) and Downtown Mixed-Use (DT-MX) zoning districts.

Permits from the city are required to operate a short-term rental property.

Short-term rental property owners are required to use reasonably prudent business practices to ensure the rental property is used in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Owners must designate a local contact person with the ability to assume management of the rental who is at least 25 years of age and available to respond to complaints 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within an hour. Owners must notify neighbors of changes in the contact person.

Short-term rental properties must be separated by at least 1000 feet except in the downtown district.

Only one vehicle per bedroom is allowed to be parked at short-term rentals and only two guests per bedroom plus five children under the age of 12 are allowed on the property.

Short-term rental owners are required to post regulations at the rental property and notify neighbors when applying for short-term rental permits.

Fire and safety codes must also be followed such as having fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, along with video cameras covering all points of egress.

Council Member Leon Childs questioned not requiring a public hearing for short-term rentals.

Mayor Jim Arrington explained that the issue with holding a public hearing for every short-term rental permit is that the city can only deny the permits based on certain criteria and the neighbors just not wanting them isn’t one of them.

“The city could be sued for not allowing them to have it even though you got the majority coming in, wanting you not to put that short-term rental in that neighborhood, we would have those criteria as the only reason we couldn’t allow it,” Arrington said.

City Manager Patrick Bowie also noted the public hearings could also be potentially very time-consuming. The city already has about a dozen short-term rental properties currently in operation. Those alone would require 12 public hearings and 12 first and second readings.

Arrington noted that they still have the opportunity to make changes to the ordinance after hearing from the public on Oct. 8.