Ordinance puts focus on short-term rental properties by Joseph Flaherty published on Arkansasonline.com
Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors in a voice vote Tuesday approved an ordinance to establish new regulations for short-term rental properties listed on Airbnb and other platforms.
Long percolating within the city's Planning and Development Department, a version of the measure had been scheduled to receive the city board's consideration at a series of meetings since last September, only to get deferred repeatedly, most recently on May 16.
Jamie Collins, the department's director, told board members before the vote that city staff had been working toward the proposed regulations for more than two and a half years.
After initially examining the issue of short-term rentals at a National League of Cities workshop five years ago, Vice Mayor Kathy Webb of Ward 3 said that "in my experience of talking to people from all over the country, not one person has told me that they have a perfect ordinance."
Having texted with peers in other cities on Tuesday, Webb reported that they were continuing to amend their ordinances.
"So I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect ordinance, but we have continued to kick this can down the road," she said. "There are things in here that I don't like that are too restrictive or not restrictive enough. And typically that's a fairly good thing because it means it's a compromise."
Little Rock city code lacks a broad definition of short-term rental properties, although it does define bed and breakfasts.
The ordinance approved Tuesday employs the same definition for bed and breakfasts and short-term rental properties, separated into the two categories of owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied.
Short-term rental properties can accommodate stays of up to 29 consecutive days, according to the ordinance.
Operators of short-term rental properties will have to obtain a business license and pay an annual inspection fee of up to $500 under the terms of the ordinance.
Read the full article at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jun/21/little-rock-city-board-adopts-new-regulations-for/
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