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The LaGrange City Council has tabled a second reading on a proposed ordinance to regulate short-term rentals (STR) within the city.

On Oct. 8, after more than two years of ongoing discussion, the city held a first reading on the ordinance to permit and establish regulations on short-term rentals, commonly referred to as AirBnbs. The city has been discussing the issue at length since April 2022, but the issue finally gained some momentum in March when the Planning Commission voted 5-2 in favor of moving forward with the legislation.

The proposed ordinance established exhaustive regulations on STRs to protect the residential neighborhoods where they are located, including limiting the number of persons in and parking at the homes, requiring a 24-hour point of contact to respond to issues and establishing a method to revoke the permits if rules are repeatedly ignored.

Notably, the first draft did not include a requirement for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for any new STRs, which would have triggered a requirement to hold a public hearing.

During the Oct. 22 work session, Mayor Jim Arrington suggested tabling the issue until the next meeting to iron out issues that came up after the Oct. 8 public hearing.

“Talking with the council, the public hearing raised a lot of concerns, a lot of questions, and there’s a lot of different opinions,” Arrington said, saying tabling the issue for another two weeks will allow city staff to prepare changes to the ordinance.

Councilman Tom Gore suggested a trio of changes to the proposed ordinance. Gore suggested going back to requiring an SUP and limiting the number of new STRs allowed within the city.

Gore initially suggested limiting the total number of STRs allowed, but the council eventually came to a consensus on allowing up to five new STRs per year.

Councilwoman Darby Pippin also questioned why STRs are only allowed in traditional residential zoning and not mixed-use zones, suggesting that they should be allowed where bed & breakfasts are allowed, for example.

“I do not think we should limit to the way it’s written right now is, where we are specifying in our three residential-only neighborhoods, but for whatever reason, we left it silent when we didn’t include the other zoning districts that are mixed-use,” Pippen said. “It just didn’t make sense to me that we were doing it specifically for what is already the most restrictive of the districts and not including the ones that have more uses.”

City Planner Mark Kostial said the ordinance almost exclusively focused on single-family homes, which are primarily in traditional residential zoning, but the ordinance could be changed to allow STRs in mixed-use districts.

Ultimately, the council voted to table the issue until the Nov. 12 meeting. The city is expected to vote on an amended substitute ordinance that will require SUPs for new STRs, limit new STRs to five per year, and allow them in mixed-use zonings.