City hall wants to know your thoughts on regulating short-term rentals

What should the city of Lee’s Summit include in a potential ordinance regulating home rental services, such as Airbnb and HomeAway?

Whether you’re a resident concerned about your neighbor renting out their homes to out-of-towners or a homeowner looking to make some extra cash renting out rooms, city leaders want to hear from you.

City Hall is scheduled to host a special public meeting 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 in city council chambers to get public comments regarding regulations on short-term rentals. Short-term rentals are considered to be day-to-day rentals of individual rooms in homes.

These types of rentals have become more popular throughout the nation, including Lee’s Summit, the city noted in a news release.

A previous ordinance adopted by the city addresses traditional bed and breakfast businesses, but doesn’t currently factor in day-to-day home room rentals. In order to manage short-term rentals, the city said it’s considering creating a new ordinance to address the effect of short-term rentals on neighborhood compatibility, tax collection, safety concerns as well as enforcement.

The city said its effort to get public comments on short-term rentals has in part been driven by complaints it has heard about people renting out their homes. In August, the city council denied a special-use permit for a bed and breakfast home-stay for a man who was renting rooms out of his home through Airbnb after neighbors in Monarch View lodged nuisance complaints.

Though aside from Airbnb, Assistant Director of Plan Services Josh Johnson said he’s found in his research at least 50 other websites that offer these kinds of services, such as HouseTrip, HomeAway and FlipKey.

“What I’d like to do is just kind of put some topics forward and get public input in how they think these things should exist in our community...There’s a myriad of ways to regulate these,” Johnson said, referencing a three-page research paper he wrote in August on the idea of regulating short-term rentals.

In the paper, Johnson said the city first needs to gather data about short-term rentals in the community, including location, rent amount, availability and frequency.

Johnson pointed to at least one issue that arose last month when an Airbnb operator tried to obtain a special-use permit to rent out rooms.

“Our special use permit is $1,100 to apply for, and that was what was required of that gentleman in the case in Monarch View,” Johnson said.

“That permit was $1,100, and the average (Airbnb) rent in Lee’s Summit is $82 a night. One issue that comes up is if the cost to apply for the permit we’re requiring is that high but the rent you’re getting is that low, it somewhat disincentivizes somebody from trying to come in to do this legally right off the bat.”

Johnson’s three-page report on short-term rentals is available to read on the city’s website.

For now, the city says it plans on gathering more data along with feedback in the special public meeting in hopes of presenting an ordinance in the near future.

For more information, contact Lee’s Summit’s Assistant Director of Plan Services Josh Johnson at 816-969-1208.