The city is now moving forward with forming a short-term rental task force that would consider opinions on both sides of the issue.
A timeline for gathering more information on short-term rentals includes a community survey that will be completed in May and a town hall meeting in late July or early August. In all, the information-gathering process could extend into spring of next year.
Additionally, a task force would make a recommendation to the Plano Planning and Zoning Commission, and then a report would be made to City Council, City Manager Mark Israelson said during the April 10 Plano City Council meeting.
The task force would give staff feedback on areas such as survey results, short-term rentals across the nation and what is most applicable to Plano.
After reviewing a proposed list of task force members, council members said they would like to see more homeowners on the task force.
The task force’s work would be separate from City Council initiatives to look into licensing the properties and other interim measures, such as a possible temporary ban on short-term rentals.
“We need more residential input from different areas of Plano,” Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maria Tu said. “Also, different socioeconomic groups and different ethnic, cultural background groups.”
Council Member Shelby Williams said he believes any members involved in sending the recommendation to the commission should also be Plano residents.
Regarding the time frame, Director of Planning Christina Day said Plano is modeling Arlington's process for dealing with short term rentals so the city has “very clear information for the council.”
Day also said she is hopeful that temporary measures that may go into effect will allow the process to take a little more time.
“I’m concerned that if we start compressing it that we lose the justifications that we have through that model,” Day said. “Can it be compressed? Yes. Do you get the same outcome? I think the answer is no.”
