Translation: Tier One Neighborhood Coalition Steering Committee Letter to Board of Adjustment regarding Short Term Rental Special Exceptions
◊ TIER ONE NEIGHBORHOOD COALITION ◊
Steering Committee
Board of Adjustments
1901 S. Alamo St.
San Antonio, TX 78204
Re: STR BoA Cases for Special Exceptions
The T1NCSteering Committee supports the City of San Antonio’s recently adopted ordinance for Short Term Rentals (STR) and remains committed to seeing its fair and consistent application implementation.
The home sharing economy, such as Airbnb, HomeAway, Flip Key, and VRBO, allowing homeowners to list bedrooms, accessory dwellings or entire houses for Short Term Rental (STR) has changed the landscape of residential neighborhoods in San Antonio as well as across the nation.
The Tier 1 Steering Committee members believe protecting our neighbors and neighborhoods is paramount in preserving and sustaining the cultural history of San Antonio and is also consistent with the SATomorrow Comprehensive plan and the Mayor’s Housing Policy Framework.
We believe the STR ordinance as currently written is the first step toward a sensitive and balanced approach in protecting both San Antonio legacy neighborhoods and responsible business owners. We acknowledge that future adjustments to the ordinance may become necessary once the city can quantify and evaluate the results, however we also believe that the willingness to allow for Special Exceptions should be carefully and judiciously meted out and that the rights of residents to protect their home investments be valued. There are many areas throughout the city that provide ample opportunity for the growth of STR Type 2s without the need to grant Special Exceptions and those areas that are already at the density limit should be aggressively protected.
We support our member neighborhoods’ decisions to either support the approval of or denial of a particular STR Type 2 Special Exception request and we respectfully ask the commission to do the same.
Respectfully,
Cosima Colvin (D1)
Dr. Christine Drennon (D1)
Antonio Garcia (D1)
Homer Hayes (D3)
Cullen Jones (D2)
Frederica Kushner (D1)
Velma Pena (D5)
Cynthia Spielman (D1)
Amelia Valdez (D5)
Terry Ybanez (D3)