The Denton City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to strengthen restrictions on Airbnb and other short-term rentals, enacting a citywide cap on the number of rentals and limiting their proximity while still allowing such rentals in all residential districts.
The new limitations on short-term rentals in residential zoning districts include a 1,000 maximum registration cap on short-term rentals; a maximum of two certificates issued per parcel; and a prohibition against a rental being within 100 feet of an existing short-term rental.
Short-term rentals in Denton’s nonresidential zoning districts — which include mixed-use neighborhoods, like many areas around downtown — won’t count toward the city’s 1,000 registration cap, nor are they subject to the 100-foot distance requirement.
In a multifamily development, a maximum 10% of units — or a minimum of two units — can be short-term rentals.
Owners must register all short-term rentals and pay the city’s hotel occupancy tax. There are currently 79 rentals registered out of an estimated 250 rentals operating in the city, according to a staff presentation Tuesday.
Those who register before the Jan. 1 start date for the new rules will be basically grandfathered in and considered a legal nonconforming use, Angie Manglaris, senior planner with the city, told the council Tuesday.
Mayor Gerard Hudspeth and council member Joe Holland cast the dissenting votes Tuesday.
Hudspeth mentioned that enforcement by the city has been an issue.
“We have a problem with [contacting] out-of-town property owners and people from out of town and no property managers,” Hudspeth said. “I just wonder how we address that. … I was hoping you would come back with some enforcement that responds faster because I think that is how you address the behavior.”
Short-term rentals are now defined as renting an entire dwelling unit for a period no less than 30 consecutive days. It doesn’t include a bed and breakfast, boarding or rooming house, hotel or motel. Also, if you don’t charge money for it but still allow someone to use it, that’s not considered a short-term rental.
Non-permanent structures are also not included.
After Tuesday night’s vote, short-term rentals will be allowed in any zoning district that allows residential uses by right or special-use permit.
Short-term rentals are also exempt from the land-use regulation over maximum persons allowed to occupy a dwelling unit.
A single bedroom or a unit may now be registered as a short-term rental. Name, address, phone number and email of a designated local emergency contact are also required.
The registration period is one year, from Jan. 1 until Dec. 31.
Scott McDonald, director of Development Services, may now revoke a short-term rental registration if three notices for violations of the Property Maintenance Code or citations for violations of the Denton Development Code and any other city ordinance or any state or federal law.
McDonald is also able to revoke it if those violations were knowingly permitted to happen in a 12-month period, or if a false statement on the registration was knowingly made.
On Tuesday night, public speakers wondered what good the new rules will do if the city isn’t currently enforcing its existing short-term rental rules.
A public commenter, real estate agent Barbara Russell, who has lived in Denton for 55 years, asked why city staff wanted to add more restrictions when they weren’t enforcing the current ones.
Russell said the city is sending mixed messages — they want tourists to visit for Denton’s 31 Days of Halloween, for example, but also try to limit where they can stay.
“We can’t get them to register,” Russell said. “What about enforcing the rules already on the books? The staff has got to research all the time, and what about taking the rules that we have and doing a better job? Enforce these rules and report back [on how it works]. If they are doing what hotels are doing, they should be paying the appropriate taxes.”
Not everyone wants to stay at a hotel or motel, Holland said, and he and several people praised their stays at short-term rentals.
But others warned that council members were opening the floodgates and said single-family residential neighborhoods would be overrun with short-term rentals. They also worried that short-term rental owners are getting away with ignoring city ordinances.
Mark Gill pointed out that one of the key purposes of zoning is to keep uses separate, but instead city staff would be allowing commercial operations in single-family residential neighborhoods and lowering property values.
“You are allowing short-term operators to invade our neighborhoods,” Gill said.
Manglaris said the city has started using a new software system to track and identify short-term rentals.
Council member Jill Jester, who agreed that strong enforcement is necessary, tried to remove the 100-foot requirement between short-term rentals and mentioned that she wanted to change it later to a percentage that would be allowed in each district.
The council didn’t approve Jester’s amendment.
Hudspeth tried removing the 100-foot requirement, the 1,000 short-term rental cap in single-family neighborhoods and the 10% cap for multifamily units in the municipal district zoning downtown.
All three of Hudspeth’s requests failed.