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Many Plano residents want action on short-term rentals. The city council created a task force.

A bullet from a shooting at short-term rental in Plano entered the window of a child's play room at a nearby home.
Texas Neighborhood Coalition Plano Chapter
A bullet from a shooting outside a short-term rental in Plano entered the window of a 3-year-old's playroom at a nearby home in February.

Plano city council wants to create a task force on short-term rentals. But recommendations from that task force could be more than a year away.

The task force idea was floated after the council has repeatedly postponed taking votes on the short-term rental issue, much to the frustration of many residents. Opponents have demanded that short-term rentals be permanently banned in residential neighborhoods at council meetings for almost a year.

Christina Day, the city’s director of planning, shared a timeline estimate for the recommended process for a permanent short-term rental ordinance. The timeline extended into 2024 and included the creation of a 16-member task force for feedback. Council members seemed open to the idea of the task force but didn’t take a vote on it.

Council member Rick Smith asked if they could shorten the timeline of the process.

“We're in spring of '23,” Smith said. “We're talking about summer mid-'24 to get recommendations back.”

But Day cautioned against doing so. She said the recommended timeline from the outreach consultant follows Arlington’s model.

Arlington requires short-term rentals to be in a certain area close to its entertainment district. Its ordinance stood up in court after a lawsuit, something Plano city council members have expressed concern about in the past.

Day said she’s concerned that cutting the process short could have bad results.

“I am concerned if we start compressing it that we lose the justifications that we have through that model,” she said. “So can it be compressed? Yes. Do you get the same outcome? I think the answer is no.”

Plano may enact a temporary ban during a joint meeting in May with the Planning and Zoning Commission. That's something council brought up after there was a shooting at a short-term rental in late February.

Zoey Sanchez Reveal lives in the home next to the where the shooting occurred. A bullet went through the window of her three-year-old daughter’s playroom.

“Although it's been over a month since a bullet pierced through my home, we still live with the repercussions,” Sanchez-Reveal said.

Muns said the council would take action on short-term rentals during the first city council meeting after the shooting.

“We’re very sorry about what happened last weekend, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that never happens again,” he said.

Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

Caroline Love is a Report For Americacorps member for KERA News.

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.

Caroline Love covers Collin County for KERA and is a member of the Report for America corps. Previously, Caroline covered daily news at Houston Public Media. She has a master's degree from Northwestern University with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism. During grad school, she reported three feature stories for KERA. She also has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Christian University and interned with KERA's Think in 2019.