North Texas Cities Continue Debate on Short-Term Rentals, Dallas Council Set to Vote in April
The Dallas City Council has remained quiet about short-term rentals as election season is in full swing, but the residents who don’t want Airbnbs in their neighborhood appear determined to keep the issue in the forefront.
Several residents spoke about restricting or eliminating STRs from residential neighborhoods during Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 Dallas City Council briefings during “public comments” — even though the matter wasn’t on either agenda.
City Hall sources have said STRs won’t likely be addressed until after the May 6 election, but officials confirmed Wednesday the council is tentatively scheduled for a briefing the first week of April, with a vote the following week. Thirteen city council races are contested.
Plano Short-Term Rentals
Other North Texas municipalities also are tackling the issue of short-term rentals.
Plano heard from 13 residents at a November city council meeting who supported zoning changes that would regulate or prohibit STRs in residential neighborhoods.
The council agreed to consider changing zoning definitions and strengthening nuisance ordinances in a process similar to the one used in Arlington.
The Plano City Council again discussed the matter in late January and received the following update from Director of Planning Christina Day.
According to a Jan. 17 memo drafted by Day, Plano city staff has:
- Met with Arlington staff to understand their process and solution, as well as key differences between the two cities.
- Substantially completed research on other cities’ zoning ordinances, in preparation for a discussion on zoning amendments.
- Pursued procurement of third-party STR data through efforts from Technology Solutions, Neighborhood Services, and Purchasing departments. Because specific locations of short-term rentals are not readily available, a third-party data consultant is being selected. These consultants monitor STR platforms and cross-reference them with publicly-available data to identify STR in the city. A recommendation is being finalized at this time for the selected vendor.