The city of Denton will hire a third-party company to identify unregistered short-term rentals after finalizing changes to STR regulations, staff shared in a town hall with residents Monday.
Short-term rentals, defined as residential units rented out for less than 30 and typically found on sites like Airbnb, have been a point of tension among residents throughout North Texas. Some homeowners associations and city governments have banned the rentals altogether following complaints about noise and safety concerns. STRs have been allowed in Denton so long as owners register them and pay hotel occupancy taxes, but most have not: staff estimated there are more than 300 short-term rentals in the city, with only a fraction of those registered.
“The last time we checked there was over 250, but that was just looking at Airbnb — I’m sure there are a lot more than that,” said Ron Menguita, principal planner with Denton’s development services department. “Our goal is to register as many as we can and once that’s done, we’ll have the data if someone is not registered. At this point we don’t have a robust registration process, but that’s ultimately the goal.”
Denton inspects rentals before approval and prohibits the properties from being used as party houses, to house sex offenders or for any illegal activity. Once registered, neighbors within 1,000 feet of the property are notified of the rental’s presence and given the number of a 24-hour emergency contact to report any issues.
A July change to Denton’s regulations was in response to a Fifth Circuit court ruling in Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans, which determined the rule limiting STRs to those who lived in the rental as their primary residence was unconstitutional. The development services team in Denton, however, is seeking to further refine the regulations by clarifying existing language and modifying some sections of the development code based on resident feedback.
The proposed changes include expanding the zones in which short-term rentals can be registered beyond those zoned residential and mixed-use neighborhood zoning district to include those in mixed-use downtown, mixed-use regional, suburban corridor, highway corridor and general office zones, areas which also include residential developments; disallowing RVs and other nonpermanent structures from being used as short-term rentals; and clarifying parking limits. Parking is currently limited to one car per bedroom or however many can fit in the garage and driveway, whichever is less, but staff plan to reassess the rule based on resident feedback, Menguita said.
Resident comments during the Monday night town hall webinar expressed both concerns about the allowance of short-term rentals in the city at all and, conversely, denied the need for any government oversight of the properties. The goal of the town halls and other attempts to gather resident feedback are to hear resident concerns, both from those who have short-term rentals and neighbors, and address them as much as possible with the updated regulations, staff said.
“Our council and our Planning & Zoning Commission is concerned about making sure those short-term rentals can be operated in a manner that can peacefully coexist in single family residential neighborhoods,” said Tina Firgens, deputy director of the development services department.
The online survey will run through Sept. 8 and can be accessed via the Discuss Denton webpage, where residents can also leave comments. City staff will then gather input from the survey, town halls and online comments and present recommendations to the Development Code Review Committee.
Proposed changes must then be approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Denton City Council, which will make the final decision on changes, likely in November or December. Once the changes are approved, the city will begin the process of hiring a third-party company to identify unregistered rentals.