Dallas employees with the planning and code compliance departments have shared recommendations with Dallas City Council for rules on short-term rentals over the past two months. These rules would affect rooms, whole houses, condominiums and apartments rented daily or weekly for less than 30 days, often through online providers, such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
Dallas staff is working with the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee and City Plan Commission to refine three options being considered for council approval. The three options define where short-term rentals are allowed to operate.
A formal registration process is being drafted in tandem with potential zoning limitations, according to city staff. Short-term rental owners would be required to register and pay a fee on an annual basis. In addition, the city would inspect all registered properties and notify neighbors of nearby short-term rentals.
Council members are scheduled to vote on a recommended plan in September.
“Hopefully we will get to the point where we can get the citizens what they want, which is peace and quiet,” District 4 Council Member Carolyn King Arnold said in a June 15 meeting. “And [they will be] able to live in a neighborhood where the city identified a specific living district.”
Rentals in neighborhoods
On June 15, council members generally agreed on one option out of the three on the table to recommend to their supporting committees for refinement.
The so-called “Keep It Simple” option would define short-term rental properties as a lodging use in city code. By doing this, short-term rentals would only be allowed in the same zoning districts where the other lodging uses, such as hotels, are able to operate.
“This is the option that does not allow any kind of short-term rental within residential [areas],” said Julia Ryan, director of planning and urban design, during the June 15 meeting.
Luis Briones, public policy lead for Airbnb, said his company hopes to see a set of rules that both helps support the short-term rental industry and does not take away property owners’ ability to rent out their dwellings.
Briones said Airbnb hosts have a right to rent out their property. He called those who have focused on creating zoning restrictions over roughly the past three years a “vocal minority.” Briones said a “more pragmatic approach” would be establishing a registration process.
“Many of those hosts indicate to us [that] they really depend on the income they make from offering up their space to pay bills to make it to the end of the month,” Briones said. “We want to make sure that everyone who has a chance—who has an ability to host for whatever reason they may be hosting—has an opportunity to continue doing that.”
Dallas resident Olive Talley is among homeowners from across the city who are part of the Dallas Neighborhood Coalition. Talley said the community-driven group of homeowners is advocating for the city to define short-term rentals as a lodging use.
Talley said it is time for the city to officially recognize short-term rentals as a lodging use and allow them only where lodging is allowed in Dallas.
“I live just a few doors down from a short-term rental, which has caused unmitigated heck for our neighborhood for the last three years,” Talley said. “It has changed hands twice and just continues to be a nightmare for the adjacent neighbors and with a ripple impact to the rest of the neighbors on the street.”
Residential unrest
Talley said members of the Dallas Neighborhood Coalition have made complaints of noise, parking issues, trash and drugs that stem from short-term rentals.
Since October 2020 to May, a total of 112 complaint filings at 69 locations have been received regarding short-term rentals throughout Dallas, according to a presentation given by Andres Espinoza, interim director of code compliance services.
In addition, Espinoza said the city has had challenges identifying all short-term rentals in Dallas, adding that there could potentially be around 1,200 unregistered short-term rentals. So, Espinoza said more complaints related to short-term rentals could exist due to not being registered.
Airbnb has taken steps to curb unruly behavior in properties booked through its platform. In August 2020, Airbnb announced a temporary ban on all parties and events in all listings.
The company announced on June 28 that the party ban would become permanent, citing a 44% year-over-year global drop in the rate of party reports, Airbnb spokesperson Lisa Cohen said in an email.
“We’ve seen even more success in Texas, where there’s been a 46% year-over-year drop in party reports,” Cohen said.
Greg Estell, a Dallas homeowner, is the vice president of the Old Lake Highlands Neighborhood Association. He said he started to learn about short-term rentals in late 2020 when he first joined the association’s board.
Estell said the association found primarily investors were purchasing affordable residences then building amenities, such as swimming pools and additional bedrooms, to use the homes as short-term rentals. He said that trend has interfered with his goal to encourage younger families to move into the Old Lake Highlands neighborhood.
“I was getting lots of phone calls and mail from residents saying, ‘Hey, Greg, can you help us out? My wife’s upset; the kids can’t sleep. ... We wake up in the morning, and we’ve got beer bottles [and] we’ve got people passed out [on] the lawn,’” Estell said.
Reining in rentals
Dallas has no formal registration process for short-term rentals. Hotel occupancy taxes are being proactively paid for 1,200 active short-term rentals, according to city data.
In an open letter sent to council members on May 4, Briones recommended Dallas allow Airbnb to collect hotel occupancy tax at point of sale. Airbnb “seamlessly” collects and remits hotel occupancy taxes on behalf of other cities in Texas, according to the letter.
Short-term rental owners would be required to supply a hotel occupancy tax registration number and certificate of occupancy, according to the proposed registration process. Mandating that the owners of short-term rental properties register with the city will help provide accountability and boost the city’s ability to collect hotel occupancy taxes, according to city officials.
“We want to make sure we promote responsible management of [short-term rentals],” said Jeremy Reed, interim assistant director of code compliance for the city.
Members of the Dallas Neighborhood Coalition said recognition of short-term rentals in city code should be in alignment with how they are taxed.
“The city cannot have it both ways,” Talley said. “The city cannot say [a short-term rental] is a hotel only for collecting [hotel occupancy tax] money and then not define it as a hotel.”
For roughly five years, Lisa Sievers has rented out a pool cabana behind her home in the Forest Hills area near Lakewood on a short-term basis. Sievers said she has also worked on Dallas task forces related to recommendations on short-term rentals.
Sievers said she is supportive of a registration program that holds bad actors accountable for rule-breaking. However, she said short-term rentals should be allowed anywhere “by right.”
“All we need is a decent ordinance and proper code enforcement to enforce it, which is all going to be paid for out of the registration system,” Sievers said.
Sievers said she has earned more than 850 five-star reviews and has met many “wonderful” guests while renting her space.
A registration program and more code enforcement officers who are paid for entirely by short-term rental owners would help tame instances of crime and disturbance, according to Sievers.
“Yes, there are some problem properties out there,” she said. “But, like I said, I really feel quite strongly that an ordinance with teeth can address those issues.”
