Resident Scott Griffin speaks in favor of short-term rentals at the May 11 West Lake Hills City Council meeting.[/caption]

West Lake Hills Mayor Linda Anthony instructed the short-term rentals subcommittee May 11 to resume their work on creating regulations following the results of a citizen survey on the issue.

A total of 310 responses were received within the survey's two-week posting—resulting in 109 people in favor of permitting STRs, 106 people opposed to allowing STRs and 89 people in favor of permitting STRs with specific regulations. Six people said they were undecided about STRs. The survey also had a space for citizens to leave a comment.

The subcommittee who developed the survey includes council members Stan Graham and Darin Walker as well as interested residents.

Graham said citizens submitted numerous comments along with their survey answers.

He and Anthony said they were surprised by how evenly divided the answers were and said they did not feel a town hall meeting was necessary based on the results.

Although the subcommittee spent months determining viable STR regulations, Anthony suggested Walker and Graham go back to the drawing board now that they have citizens’ opinions.

Resident Gibbons Burke asks City Council to be preserve the essential character of West Lake Hills.[/caption]

“I’m inclined to say that perhaps the best course of action is for the subcommittee to reconvene and start looking at specific regulations and look at what other cities have done,” she said.

Graham stressed that as the regulations are developed, citizens will have ample opportunity to share their opinions during public hearings. He said he would likely return to City Council with a draft of the regulations in a month.

Resident Scott Griffin, who supports STRs, asked the council to look at the “minimal set of regulations that seem to make sense” and govern as little as possible. He said he wished council could regulate with the existing ordinances already in the city code for noise and disturbances.

Gibbons Burke, also a resident, said allowing STRs would change the essential nature of the community.

“Some of the residents can commercially exploit their property and the brunt of the negative impact of that is worn by their neighbors,” he said.

Burke asked that the council “proceed cautiously and protect what has been and what’s made this city great.”

Ashley Hodgini, a government relations specialist with vacation rental company Homeaway, said Wilmington, N.C. is the only other city she knows of where a citizen survey on STRs was posted.

She said the city’s regulations need to be easily accessible, easily understood and apply across the board.

City Council should rely on existing regulations that address nuisance concerns and have stricter enforcements on those ordinances, Hodgini said.

“With any city, but especially in Westlake, in order for [City Council] to create the best possible program and have the greatest possible compliance, the regulations should be simple,” she said.