New short-term rentals are banned for a year in Plano starting next week.
The Plano city council passed a temporary ban on new short-term rentals at a joint meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission. The temporary ban goes into effect May 15.
Members of the Texas Neighborhood Coalition urged the council to pass a temporary ban after a shooting outside a short-term rental in Plano. The group advocates for a permanent short-term rental ban in residential neighborhoods.
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. She talked about how the shooting impacted her family at a recent city council meeting.
“Although it's been over a month since a bullet pierced through my home, we still live with the repercussions,” Sanchez-Reveal said.
Short-term rentals were a big issue in Plano's city council elections last week. Council member Shelby Williams — who supports a permanent ban — had the coalition's support in his bid for re-election. The group also supported Colleen Aguilar Epstein, who lost to Rick Horne for Place 3. He’s a member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Christina Day, the city’s director of planning, shared a timeline estimate for the recommended process for a permanent short-term rental ordinance at a previous city council meeting. 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-'42 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.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For Americacorps member for KERA News.
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