Talks continue on short-term rental regulations

By Grace Lovins

Birmingham City Commissioners and Planning Board members continued a lengthy discussion on regulations for short-term rentals throughout the city during the Monday, June 15, joint workshop which at first was dominated by the issue of an out-of-control pool party at a rental home the prior weekend.

As planning board members have been looking into regulating short-term rentals through the city’s zoning ordinance, they intended to pose several questions to the commission during the workshop to gain clarification. The review of the Birmingham’s regulations of rentals was prompted by an April 11 incident involving a party and gunshots at a short-term rental property in the city.

The beginning of the workshop included comments from city staff regarding an incident that took place over the weekend involving a homeowner renting out their pool on Westchester Street. Several city residents and news outlets reported a pool party that lost control, leading to multiple calls to police.

City manager Jana Ecker said that the incident took place at a residence that is not considered a short-term rental in the sense that short-term rentals were on the agenda. She stated that, while it wasn’t a short-term rental, the pool party was illegal since the city’s zoning ordinance does not allow a private pool to be used for public events hosted by a third-party in a residential neighborhood.

Birmingham Police Department Investigations Captain Michael Simpson said that the Westchester homeowner was cited for three misdemeanors of permitting gathering of disorderly persons, breach of peace and public nuisance violations. He said the event host also received violations for gathering of disorderly persons and decibel level prohibitions. A few other traffic violations and a misdemeanor were issued after the party was shut down.

Following roughly an hour of public comment from an overflow crowd of local residents regarding the pool party, commissioners and planning board members took up discussions on short-term rental questions posed by the board. The first question was if the commission had any interest in allowing the planning board to study possibilities for allowing short-term rentals in the commercial and mixed-use areas of the city.

Planning board members noted that areas like the Rail District and Triangle District could prove to be good opportunities for allowing short-term rentals and asked the commission to continue investigating it. Multiple commissioners disagreed with the point, saying that creating areas where short-term rentals are permitted could make enforcement more difficult as well as they could have negative impacts on the citizens living in the residential streets in those districts.

Commissioner Brad Host went so far as to attempt to motion for the immediate elimination of short-term rentals in the city, with the exception of owner-occupied rentals. His motion was not only deemed “inappropriate and ill-conceived” by one commissioner, but was considered not permissible by city attorney Tracy Gaudenzi given an active moratorium on new short-term rentals as well as the public noticing required to comply with the Open Meetings Act.

Commissioners and board members continued on to discuss exceptions for owner-occupied or hosted rentals. Owner-occupied would mean the rental unit must be the owner’s primary address, occupied 183 days out of the year, and hosted rentals would mean the owner is actively staying at the address while the rental takes place.

The commission reached a consensus that no exceptions should be made for short-term rentals.

Ultimately, no formal action was taken by either the board or commission, but planning board members will continue to look into options for regulating short-term rentals through the city’s zoning ordinance.