Highland Village City Council received a staff presentation on potential short-term rental policies during a Nov. 12 work session.

In a nutshell

According to city documents, short-term rentals are residential properties rented wholly or partly for a fee not to exceed 30 consecutive days. While City Manager Paul Stevens said cities cannot ban or prohibit short-term rentals, nearby cities such as Grapevine and Plano have recently placed restrictions on them.

“The city may adopt reasonable regulations that are backed by evidence showing the regulations serve to protect the health, safety and welfare of renters and other citizens,” Stevens said.

He added homeowners associations do have the ability to ban short-term rentals, and noted the neighborhood of Highland Shores doesn’t allow them.

Stevens said according to Rentalscape, a software development company that provides short-term rental information, there are 21 in Highland Village and that approximately half of them are active. These properties have generated the following actions by the city over the past year:

• 7 code enforcement violations, including tall grass and weeds
• 9 calls for service at four short-term rentals, including parking violations, false alarms and suspicious persons

“We do flag all of the [short-term rentals] in our dispatch system so we can keep records and follow up [on complaints],” Stevens said.

Zooming in

In terms of potential revenue a short-term rental registration program would have for the city, Stevens gave the following scenario based on the 21 short-term rentals in Highland Village:

• $8,400 - registration fee ($400 x 21 properties)
• $15,840 - potential revenue if properties are charged a hotel occupancy tax

Stevens said Rentalscape provides services such as short-term rental monitoring, tax collection and inspections, which would cost roughly $13,500 a year. He added if the city were to hire Rentalscape to provide these services, it would leave approximately $10,740 per year for tourism promotion, which is the only thing the city can use these types of funds for.

Moving forward, Stevens outlined three potential options council members could take regarding short-term rentals:

• Adopt an inspection program and charge a hotel occupancy tax
• Require registration and inspections with no hotel occupancy tax collections
• Require registration with no hotel occupancy tax collections or inspection but would require the city to have property owner information

What they’re saying

Council member Place 7 Brian Fiorenza pushed back against possible overreach short-term rental ordinances could mean for residents.

“We’re talking about limiting property owner rights, which I think should be off the table,” Fiorenza said. “It is not our responsibility to tell somebody what they can or cannot do with their property.”

Council Member Place 5 Rhonda Hurst said that white she agrees with private property rights, having a framework for short-term rental registration would potentially limit negative impact to surrounding property owners.

“Having a rental registration in general provides a service to people living here,” Hurst said.

This was a discussion item only. No action was taken.