San Antonio’s 5-year-old short term rental ordinance will get a fresh look by a task force with representation from neighborhood groups, rental operators, real estate professionals and housing advocates.
The City Council’s Planning and Community Development Committee voted unanimously Monday on a plan to convene the task force to reconsider aspects of the ordinance after expressing concerns over scofflaws who ignore permit requirements and don’t pay taxes as well as other issues.
Last month the committee heard an update on the state of short term rental industry in San Antonio, as well as concerns raised by neighborhood organizations and the chair of the Short Term Rental Association. Council asked the Development Services Department (DSD) to return with a plan to review the ordinance with an eye toward beefing up enforcement.
DSD Director Michael Shannon presented a plan that would create a task force to review permit and hotel occupancy tax (HOT) compliance, enforcement and violation strategies, event and party violations, permit fees and the obligation of platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo to enforce ordinance requirements.
Just over 3,200 STRs are permitted, Shannon said, with another 1,200 to 1,500 operating without permits. The vast majority of all STRs are in council District 1, with almost 900 units, and District 2, with close to 600. Last year the city hired a new STR vendor, Avenu, to collect taxes and help bring more unpermitted properties into compliance.
The task force will also look at the issue of short term rentals owned by companies and individual real estate investors versus those owned by property owners who live on site. Almost 80% of short term rentals are not owner-occupied, according to DSD, and while the ordinance limits how many of these properties may be permitted per block in a neighborhood, council members showed keen interest in reducing that percentage further.
Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) suggested dropping the limit from 12.5% of a block face (one side of one block) to 10%.
Shannon suggested in his presentation that the goal of the task force not be a full rewrite of the ordinance, which he said is working fairly well, but Councilman John Courage (D9) noted that the Continental Congress was tasked with “not rewriting, you know, but just kind of touch up” the Articles of Confederation.
“And a year later we ended up with a whole new Constitution,” he said. “So I am not against saying we shouldn’t look at some major changes to the current [ordinance] we have today.”
Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), who last month raised concerns that the number of short term rentals could make it more difficult for residents to find housing, echoed other council members who said they felt the current permit fee of $100 for three years is too low. She suggested the fees should increase and be earmarked for the city’s affordable housing fund.
Short term rentals where parties are held also came in for unanimous criticism, and while Shannon noted that DSD had successfully shut down some number of them over the past year, Councilman Manny Paleaz (D8) said he has “grown impatient for a solution to shut down party houses. … I want to hear a plan for how we’re going to crack down and bring people into compliance.”
The task force will have a similar composition to the one convened ahead of the creation of the ordinance, which council approved in November 2018. Between 16 and 20 members will include neighborhood leaders, STR operators and/or property managers and representatives from the rental platforms, the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association, the development community, the Texas Organizing Project and housing rights activists Texas Housers.
Shannon said the city would seek members through neighborhood meetings, social media and other forms of outreach. The goal is to have a task force seated by spring 2024 and have it make recommendations by May. Public meetings would be held over the summer, with any proposed changes then going to the Board of Adjustments, the Planning and Community Development Committee and finally to the full City Council for a vote by the end of 2024.
