Airbnb, VRBO and other short-term rental, or STR, properties popping up in Irving are subject to new requirements.
The Irving City Council voted unanimously July 30 to require new STR owners to obtain a Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, to operate.
Prospective hosts will need to complete an STR application and then apply for a CUP.
Those already operating STRs in Irving before the July 31 effective date may continue doing so as long as they follow existing rules for STRs and the property's registration is up to date.
Officials told KERA there are about 220 STRs operating in Irving.
During the July meeting, council member John Bloch said he was “beyond proud” to vote for the ordinance.
“This is definitely the most significant step that we have taken as a council to protect the integrity of our neighborhoods,” Bloch said. “I look forward to not ending the fight to protect our neighborhoods here and continuing to push.”
Per state law, the city told affected property owners about the changes through mailed-out materials.
Irving joins several cities across the Metroplex setting new rules for STRs, including Richardson and Garland. Last year, North Richland Hills created policies offering similar legacy status to existing STR operators within the code changes.
Regulations for Irving short-term rentals
Shane Diller is Irving's code enforcement director. He spoke with KERA's Andy Lusk about the specifics of the city's STR regulations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Shane Diller: In 2022, Irving originally adopted its short-term rental ordinance. At that time, the ordinance required that short-term rentals — which we define in Irving as a property that is rented either in whole or in part for less than 30 days — they register with the city, specifically code enforcement, the department that runs the registry. That's if they're operating single-family homes.
In the most recent updates to the ordinance, the registration has been expanded to apartments.
We have regulations in place where no unsupervised minors are allowed to be on the property; there has to be an adult on site with minors. There has to be a minimum of two-night stays.
Our most recent changes have required that there be on-site parking of four spaces at a minimum, more if there's more bedrooms than that one-per-bedroom.
We require that there not be any more than 10% of a block face have STRs.
So, as someone now applies for a short-term rental, we check to make sure that, if there 20 homes on that block face, that no more than two of them would be short-term rentals.
It's required that no individual rooms be rented out. So, if you're living in a home and renting a short-term rental, you can rent out a room. But if you are renting the whole home, you have to rent the home to a single party or group of people. You can't rent out this room to this couple and that room to that couple. They have to be rented in total, not individually.
Most recently, just this past month, the city council adopted a Conditional Use Permit requirement for new, single-family home short-term rentals.
That means if you're going to open a new short-term rental in a single-family home neighborhood, you have to connect with our planning department and apply for a CUP so that the city can consider the request specifically and make sure that there are no concerns or conditions that would need to be applied before a new short-term rental opens there.
The intent really is to make sure that our single-family neighborhoods retain the character of a single-family neighborhood and that we can address the issues and the complaints the city has received regarding noise, parties, parking and traffic, and that sort of thing.
Andy Lusk: You mentioned a minimum two-night stay for an STR, so if I only wanted to stay in a short-term rental for one night, is that something I can't do in Irving?
Diller: That's something that, in Irving, we don't allow the hosts to do. Again, we're trying to keep the character of the neighborhood so that there's not regular or constant turnover.
Lusk: Are there other cities that have done that specific requirement and seen it work to their benefit?
Diller: One of the things we did when we adopted the ordinance was look around to see who else is doing something that works. That's one of those standards that we found that was not uncommon.
It's new to us as far as enforcing it. So, it's one those things that we're watching to see how well it's working.
We're always looking to make sure that the ordinance is fair and balanced enough to where we're accomplishing our mission. If we need to tweak or amend the ordinance or add or take away things, we're perfectly willing to treat it as a living document and make sure that it's serving our purposes well.
One of the things that might be important for folks to know is that, in addition to what has been adopted so far, we are going to present to the council an inspections program in September that would have each short-term rental in the city receive an annual inspection when they renew their STR registration. They would make sure that they're compliant with housing codes and a safe environment.
We've received complaints about the conditions of some STRs and we want to make sure that, similarly to how we inspect our apartments and hotels annually, that we'd inspect our short-term rentals annually to make sure that they're safe and healthy environments.
Lusk: Speaking of hotels, I want to know how STRs fall under the umbrella of a hotel tax, if that's applicable.
Diller: The short-term rentals are required to pay our hotel occupancy tax, just like the hotels are, because they fall into that category of less than 30-day stays.
We wanted to make sure that the business playing field was even, if you will, with our hotels in the city and our short-term rentals who operate as hotels.
Lusk: Tell me a little bit about how this July 31st deadline impacts folks that were already running STRs. What does it mean for them?
Diller: If you were operating an STR when the ordinance took effect, July 31st, then you're not required to apply for the CUP or the special permission to continue to operate.
You do have to register each year, as you've always been required to do, and make sure that you're abiding by the other operational standards that have been adopted.
But the CUP requirement will only apply to new single-family home short-term rentals that come online now.
So, we are processing applications as they come in.
After code enforcement reviews the application for meeting the operational standards, then we connect the applicant with the planning department to process the CUP request, and we hold that hearing before the planning commission and ultimately the city council.
None of that's retroactive to folks that have been operating prior to the requirement that was adopted, as long as they were registered already and operating legally.
Lusk: Is there going to be any retroactive tax or anything that people have to make back payments on?
Diller: No, because the tax has been in place since the ordinance was originally adopted in 2022 with the registration.
The city has contracts with host platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to where they actually collect the tax on behalf of their hosts and remit it to the city. That's actually been a very good system to make sure that it's done well.
Lusk: Are there any general misconceptions or misunderstandings about short-term rentals in Irving that you would like to dispel?
Diller: We're in an era where people generally understand what short-term rentals are and how they work. Our ordinances, I think, have been fairly straightforward and are fairly clear.
If anybody does have questions about the ordinances or if they are aware of a short- term rental and they feel as though they've got questions about it — is it registered, they're experiencing issues with those — I'd encourage them to reach out to the code enforcement department here in Irving and discuss that with us and let us investigate any concerns they might have.
I think it's important that people understand that short-term rentals are not all rental properties. They're properties that are rented for 30 days or less. So, where you do have rental homes in single-family neighborhoods, many of those are rented for longer than 30 days and don't fall under the regulation and inspection process that these short-terms rentals do.
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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