After big pushback to proposed regulations last year, the City Council is ready to consider a revised set of rules for people who rent short-term via Airbnb, VRBO, and similar services, as well as potential bed-and-breakfast operators.
Today’s Land Use Information Bulletin includes official notice of the new proposal, with this description:
The legislation would establish a new definition for “short-term rental” as a type of lodging use and establish standards for short-term rentals, including a limit on the number of dwelling units that an individual may operate as a short-term rental. The legislation would also modify the definition of “bed and breakfast” as a type of lodging use and modify the standards for bed and breakfasts as an accessory use in residential zones, allowing existing “bed and breakfast” uses to continue but regulating new bed and breakfast uses as short-term rentals.
The legislation adds a requirement that all short-term rental uses have a short-term rental operator’s license from the City and that all short-term rental platforms have a short-term rental platform’s license from the City, and establishes a process for the enforcement of licensing requirements. The legislation includes a one-year compliance window for anyone currently offering nightly or weekly rentals of a residence within the City of Seattle.
According to a news release from City Councilmember Tim Burgess, who officially announced the revised rule-change proposal, the aforementioned limit would mean “anyone may provide their primary residence and one additional unit as a short-term rental, without limitation of nights per year.”
Burgess is quoted as saying, “Under my revised proposal, a family can still rent out their home when they go on a weekend vacation, or a homeowner can rent out their second property to help pay the mortgage. All this while preventing a mass turnover of existing rental housing stock into short-term rentals. I think we’ve struck the right balance, and I look forward to more review in the weeks ahead as the Council considers this ordinance.” The news release says the next step is for the council’s Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods, and Finance Committee to consider the legislation in early June. (Burgess chairs the committee, and its vice chair is West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold.)
You can read the full proposed ordinance by going here. Today’s notice also includes the city’s determination that the proposed rule changes are environmentally non-significant; you have until May 8th to either comment on that contention, or appeal it, and the notice explains how.
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