Members of the City Planning Commission want in-depth study before they are willing to make a recommendation on regulations to govern short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.
The proposed ordinance focused on an activity often referred to as Airbnb and Home Away would set guidelines to monitor those who rent rooms or their entire homes to those willing to pay for lodging on a temporary basis, without staying in traditional hotels and motels.
Community Services Director Richard Rogalski said city code doesn’t address such temporary lodging as it does with longer-term rentals and hotels/motels. Rogalski said the need for guidelines arose out of questions posed to city administrators and City Council members, and senior planner Debbie Dollarhite spent months researching regulations used in other cities to monitor the activity.
But, some commissioners questioned whether the activity is wide-spread enough to require regulation. CPC Chairman David Denham said while he is aware of property owners who engage in the practice, those people tend to restrict rentals to families who are in Lawton to attend graduation ceremonies for soldiers at Fort Sill.
It was at Denham’s urging that the commission agreed to appoint a committee to review the issue and decide whether regulations are necessary, with membership to include those who engage in the short-term rentals as well as hotel/motel operators and others.
The code would define the practice of short term rental as a dwelling unit or portion thereof or an accessory dwelling unit that is rented, leased or otherwise assigned for tenancy of less than 30 consecutive days. Other requirements include a license that must be renewed annually (with an accompanying fee); restrictions on the maximum length of stay (30 days), age of renter (21) and number of people in the structure (maximum of two people per bedroom, one rental contract per structure); directives for signs (no larger than 2 feet-by 2-feet); and a ban on serving of meals to guests or allowing cooking in bedrooms.
Short term rentals also would have to charge and pay taxes under the proposed ordinance, to include the hotel-motel tax paid by hotels and motels in Lawton.
Rogalski said different communities handle short-term rentals in different ways, but most charge taxes of some kind. He said charging the hotel-motel tax is fair because otherwise, short term rentals “have an unfair advantage with hotels/motels,” adding city code already requires hotel-motel taxes to be collected in those instances.
Dollarhite and Rogalski said the ordinance is a means of address concerns about preserving the residential character of neighborhoods. The ordinance specifies a structure used for short-term rentals must maintain a residential character, and occupancy is limited to the house, meaning renters may not stay in tents, sheds, vehicles or other non-residence locations.
But, commissioners had numerous questions about the practice.
Deborah Jones, a commissioner who is a retired city planner, questioned the restriction to one contract per house, saying there are situations where workers come to Lawton on a temporary basis — military contractors or contracted nurses, for example — and stay in the same house near their places of employment, but only on a temporary basis.
“You can’t rent to two defense contractors?” she asked, saying the one-party contract “is bothering me.”
Commissioner John Jones, a Lawton builder and real estate agent, said 50 percent of the houses in Lawton are rental properties and traditional rentals don’t fall under these proposed provisions.
“A big market here is families who come in for (military) graduations,” Jones said, adding he knows people who purchased properties specifically for these short-term rentals.
“Is there a reason to regulate?” Deborah Jones asked.
John John indicated there is not, saying everything he has heard about the practice reveals little to no problems.
“We have dozens of these in town,” said Denham, of short-term rental properties, adding those property owners need to be part of the discussion about regulations.
Commissioners highlighted other provisions in the drafted code, including parking requirements (the practice will allow property owners to put even more vehicles around their properties, one commissioner said).
Under current estimates, there are 54 houses and 36 rooms in houses in Lawton for rent on a temporary basis.
Dollarhite said Lawton isn’t the only community fighting the issue, adding Tulsa’s City Planning Commission made a recommendation on short term residential rentals last spring.
“The council has yet to act on it,” she said.
Committee members said they want to look at the issue, acknowledging that for the nation’s younger residents, short-term rentals is their preferred method of staying when they travel.
“This is how they stay,” Greg Gibson, assistant city attorney. “They don’t look for a Hilton.”
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