Category: Short Term Rental

April 4, 2019 Update: HB 3778 has been modified so that there are no stipulations to block face restrictions. It does, however, provide for unlimited STRs in non residential areas outside of a municipality. It does prohibit any restrictions that result in the ban of all STRs. Read revised version here.

• HB 3778 will prevent cities from regulating the location of short term rentals.
• Testify Against HB 3778 in the House Urban Affairs CommitteeTexas Capitol – Room E2.010 – 8:00 AM – Thursday, April 4th

Click HERE if you intend to testify on Thursday. Also, review the links below for more info on opposing HB 3778. Dear Texas Neighbor:  Looking ahead to the hearing for HB 3778 on Thursday, we’ve put together a toolkit that you can use in your contact with Urban Affairs representatives. Please click on the links below to access the materials. – Talking points for HB 3778/STR Preemption – Tips for effective testimony – Text of HB 3778 – Contact information for all members of Urban Affairs. For added convenience, these are also listed below for your convenience. Please don’t hesitate to reply to this email address if you have any questions about testifying, or about the bill. We will also conduct an email campaign on Tuesday, April 2nd in anticipation of the hearing. We will send out a link as we get closer to launch. House Urban Affairs Committee Members: Rep. Angie Chen-Button – angie.button@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0486 Rep. Matt Shaheen – matt.shaheen@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0594 Rep. Jessica gonzalez – jessica.gonzalez@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0408 Rep. Vikki Goodwin – vikki.goodwin@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0652 Rep. Eric Johnson – eric.johnson@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0586 Rep. Mayes Middleton – mayes.middleton@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0502 Rep. Christina Morales – christina.morales@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0732 Rep. Jared Patterson – jared.patterson@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0694 Rep. Valoree Swanson – valoree.swanson@house.texas.gov – 512-463-0572 Stay ready. Sincerely, Texas Neighbors for Property RightsDisclaimer – Texas Neighbors for Property Rights (TNPR) operates on behalf of the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association. TNPR’s sole purpose is to support the interests of the lodging industry through grassroots action. Any communication between TNPR or its officers and any other party is solely for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice of any kind.  Texas Neighbors for Property Rights 1701 West Avenue  |  Austin, Texas 78701  |  (512) 474-2996

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)

Update March 29, 2019: One of the complications that has occurred is the definition of a “blackface” and whether it includes accessory dwelling units (ADUs) or what we use to call “back houses.”

February 17, 2019

Board of Adjustment 

1901 S. Alamo

San Antonio, TX 

Attn: Chair Roger Martinez

Re: The Short Term Rental Ordinance

Dear Mr. Martinez,

As citizens that served at the Development Services Department’s request on the Short Term Rental Task Force, we would like to express our appreciation for your support of the ordinance during a recent Board of Adjustments hearing. 

I attended the pre-hearing work session and was dismayed to find out that the commissioners had to learn in a rapid fire 30 minutes what my fellow STR TF members and staff and I worked on for 19 months. (April 2017 – Nov 1 2018) I felt compelled to follow-up with you and provide a copy of the statement that I mostly got to read (the new 2 min limit threw me off) at the hearing on February 18^th.

“Those of us that were asked to serve and represent a neighborhood voice gave up several concessions in order to focus on the issue of Type 2 density. This was the most important part of the ordinance that we fought for and that we heard from the public was their top concern. By placing a restriction of 12.5% per block face we hoped to minimize the commercialization of residential streets.  In the case of multi-family properties and condos, the restriction was designed with the idea that neighborhoods should not have to lose their residential character so that a property owner could operate a mini-hotel within their community. 

And while it was always understood that a property owner would have the legal right to request a Special Exception in order to circumvent this restriction, I think the hope was that DSD staff would review that request within the context of the work that had been done by the STR Task Force, the input that had been received by the community and the goals of the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan, all of which would provide a strong argument against allowing for the operation of a commercial business in the middle of a residential block and protect neighborhoods from losing their residential integrity. In addition, the concession was made that those operators that were already registered with the city and current on their legal obligation to pay the HOTax, which was required prior to the implementation of the STR Ordinance, would be grandfathered. And yet here we are, 7 days after the deadline to register, already considering a case that would push that work around to its very limits.

I also understand that staff has a set of pre-determined criteria that they need to use as a guideline, but I question how they have responded to some of those. While the property is already an MF property, so already being used for rentals, and therefore staff does not feel that it makes a difference whether those are long term rentals or tourist accommodations, I wonder if the other 6 tenants living in the building feel the same way.  It should also be noted that although many of the surrounding properties are zoned MF33, they are in fact single family properties and so the zoning is not reflective of the use.

In closing, we ask the commission to deny this request under the spirit of what the task force worked to balance between neighborhood preservation and the rights of property owners.

STR Task Force Members,

Cosima Colvin

Cynthia Spielman

Tony Garcia

Jim Smith

Cullen Jones

Charlotte Kerr-Jorgensen

It should be noted that Cynthia Spielman, Charlotte Kerr-Jorgensen and Jim Smith are STR Operators.”

We hope that you and your fellow Commissioners will be provided with additional training and resource material to be able to more comfortably consider STR Special Exception Requests. Although we stand behind the ordinance as a whole, we believe it will be requests based on the density restrictions that will test the ordinance’s mettle and the Commission’s.  I want to affirm that we are not saying that there should never be a Special Exception granted, but that they be meted out judiciously. Our group will continue to advocate for support of the ordinance

Lastly, we know that it is an important consideration of the Commissioners to hear from the neighbors and Neighborhood Association most directly affected, but in truth, STRs are an increasing issue in many of our urban core neighborhoods and precedents that get set in one will affect others. The citizens count on the Board of Adjustments’ members to consider their well-being as a matter of course, whether they are able to participate in the process or not. 

We thank you for your service to our city and its residents.

Sincerely,

STR Task Force Members,

Cosima Colvin

Tony Garcia

Cullen Jones

Charlotte Kerr-Jorgensen

Jim Smith

Cynthia Spielman

PROPOSED SHORT TERM RENTAL (STR) ORDINANCE

Update: Since this was published, the STR proposed ordinance was reviewed by the Zoning Commission on February 6th (after hours of public testimony) who voted to recommend approval with the added language to add authorized bed and breakfast (B&Bs) establishments to the proposed distance limitations for Type 2 STRs. The Commission also voted to recommend revisiting the distance grid for Type 2 STRs, to consider a limitation on the amount of condo and apartments units in individual buildings which are used as Type 2 STRs, and to consider a limit on the number of sleeping areas and occupancies for Type 1 STRs.

The proposed ordinance  will got to City Council B-Session for discussion and then City Council A-Session for consideration.  The dates have not been announced for these meetings.

The STR proposed ordinance can be found at https://docsonline.sanantonio.gov/FileUploads/dsd/ShortTermRentalDRAFTOrdinance.pdf

History

In February 2017, then District 10 Council member Mike Gallagher submitted a Council Consideration Request to “review current code and research best practices regarding short term rentals.” The City’s Developmental Services Department (DSD) formed a Short Term Rental Task Force (STRTF) to study the issue and draft an ordinance. The Task Force was made of six representatives from five neighborhood association boards.  The task force also included ten STR operators, a representative from Airbnb, two land use attorneys, staff, and various other interests. Since May 2017, the Task Force met eight times with DSD staff as well as five public general meetings held monthly in the evenings for broader input.

The Board of Adjustment met on January 8^th and approved the ordinance with the added requirement that no Type 2 STRs be allowed a special exemption only if it “…will not alter the essential character of the district and location…” of the property. The Planning Commission approved the proposed ordinance including the requirement added by Board of Adjustment and also added a request that City Council explore prohibiting Type 2 STRs in designated Historic Districts.

Summary

Elements of the draft ordinance that are of particular interest to neighborhoods (Portions of this proposed ordinance at end of this document):

• A distinction is made between owner-occupied (Type 1) STRs and non-owner occupied properties used exclusively as STRs (Type 2).
• Much of the permitting (not all), fees, taxation, and safety requirements are the same for both types and both are permitted in any residential zone; however, a distinction is made in two important ways: Only Type 2 STRs have to appeal to the Board of Adjustments (BoA) for a variance and only Type 2s are subject to a density requirement (similar to the existing ordinance regarding B&Bs) although that is subject to appeal. Type 1 STRs have no such restrictions.  All properties registered before the ordinance is adopted are “grandfathered” in terms of density; these properties will not be required to adhere to density standards but will count towards future density calculations.

Neighborhoods

Most of the inner loop neighborhoods have concerns about the proliferation of Type 2 STRs and seek regulations to guide future STR use. Neighborhoods have come under considerable duress with the rising unaffordability and unavailability of housing (both through ownership and rental). The proliferation of unregulated Short Term Rentals (STRs) deepens this problem by removing housing from the market and community resiliency is strained as long term housing become hotels.

The following recommendations are from the neighborhood representatives who served on the Short Term Rental Task Force:

“Having served on the Short Term Rental Task Force we are generally in favor of the ordinance that was drafted in addition to the recommendations made by both the Board of Adjustments and the Planning Commission with the caveat that we would still like to see language regarding density requirements for the Type 2 rentals strengthened.  Although there may have been an attempt for the representation of neighborhoods to be equal to that of STR operators and other stakeholders we ended up with only six (6) neighborhood representatives on a Task Force of 25 members clearly putting us in the minority.

One of the strongest concerns that we hear from neighborhoods is that residential blocks are losing neighbors because of the slow but sure proliferation of STR rentals.  While the density grid attempts to address this issue, it does not take into account the existence of B & B’s or Type 1 STRs resulting in a narrow view of what could become the accumulative effect on the residential use and quality of life of the neighborhood. As we did during the STR Task Force meetings, we continue to advocate for the inclusion of B&Bs in the calculation of distance as per Figure 399.06-1.

Our second recommendation regarding density goes to the number of STR units per lot. Our concern is that multi-family properties will be allowed to operate like hotels and reduce the number of long term rentals. We would support adding either a percentage or a fixed number of total units per lot to ensure the retention of affordable housing stock.”

Different neighborhoods present different issues in response to the proposed STR ordinance. Downtown neighborhoods like Beacon Hill for example, seem most concerned with the growth of Type 2 STRs, while a historic neighborhood like King William, who is also contending with B&Bs, have an added concern about Type 1 STRs. Most agree that the issue of density of Type 2s, as well as the process of seeking approval from BoA for Type 2s are a priority to protect neighborhoods and communities.

Schedule (Revised)

The next meetings are as follows:

• Jan. 25, 2018 – Community, Health, & Equity Committee Briefing and Action (dated            stayed the same)
• Feb. 6, 2018 – Zoning Commission Action (dated changed)
• Feb. 8, 2018– City Council Action (date stayed the same)

The times, place, and agendas may be viewed at https://sanantonio.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx). There will be one more General Meeting for public input on January 31^st from 5:30-7:00 pm at the DSD /Cliff Morton Building (1901 S. Alamo) before the draft ordinance goes to City Council for a vote on February 8^th.  A copy of the draft ordinance, the meeting schedules, a history of public comments and other details and information are available at http://www.sanantonio.gov/DSD/Resources/Codes#176642678-short-term-rental.