ST. LOUIS — An aldermanic committee on Tuesday endorsed a package of regulations on short-term rental units, moving the issue to the full Board of Aldermen after five years of on-and-off discussion at City Hall.
Among other things, the legislation would require operators to apply for annual permits, requiring building inspections, and limit those who don’t live in their building to renting out four units citywide.
“The most significant thing is we’ll have the ability to remove the listing of problematic short-term rentals†if they rack up too many violations of city rules, the sponsor, Alderman Bret Narayan of the Dogtown neighborhood, said after the teleconference meeting.
But critics said the legislation wouldn’t go far enough in trying to control the proliferation of such rental units in residential areas, causing what they say are noise, parking and other problems.
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They also said the two-bill package won’t adequately address the use of some units for parties that have sometimes resulted in violence, especially in downtown apartments.
“It’ll destabilize neighborhoods and multi-family buildings and ultimately make the city a far less attractive place to live,†said Les Sterman, a downtown resident and part of a group pushing for strong regulations, Neighborhoods Are For Neighbors.
The Transportation and Commerce Committee voted 3-1 to endorse Narayan’s bills after declining to vote on a string of amendments with tougher restrictions proposed by acting chairwoman Cara Spencer, of Marine Villa.
“I’m sorely disappointed this committee doesn’t want to consider these,†said Spencer, who then cast the lone negative votes on the two bills.
One of her proposed changes would limit short-term rentals in single-family, two-family and multiple-family residential areas to people offering lodging in the home they live in. In other areas, operators could have just one short-term rental in their primary residence, plus two additional units.
Spencer also wants to bar short-term rentals in apartment buildings of eight or fewer units and limit the number in larger buildings to 12.5% of the units.
She also wants to prohibit short-term rentals within 500 feet of a hotel, and bar them from developments receiving city tax breaks and other incentives.
She said she would offer the changes again when the legislation comes up for floor debate, which could occur as soon as next week.
Narayan, the bills’ sponsor, said he objected to taking up amendments without first running them by city attorneys, the building commissioner’s office, police and other offices to see if they were workable.
He said he had already done that with the revised version of his proposals that he had submitted to the committee a week ago.
While his original legislation already barred offering rentals for party space, he added wording aimed at making such illegal activity less likely. The added provision would require a minimum rental of two nights.
His bills also would require rental operators to give the city a 24-hour contact person and to get a business license if they don’t live in the building the rental unit is in.
St. Louis is now one of the few parts of the metro area with no rules for such rentals, which are booked through platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
The committee voted at the end of a three-hour meeting at which both supporters and critics of the bills spoke.
Some current operators of short-term rentals questioned some of the restrictions in Narayan’s bills and said they would hurt business people with no record at all of causing any problems for neighbors.
Karen Karabell of the Central West End, who said she operates 21 vacation rentals as part of her business, called the proposed four-unit maximum in the legislation “arbitrary, capricious and discriminatory.â€
Anthony Aguas, another operator, said he believes there should be some regulation but also questioned the four-unit limit.
He also worried about a provision requiring the listing of rental properties’ addresses on the city’s website, saying that could help criminals wanting to steal furniture and other items when the units aren’t in use.
Carol Wray, a St. Louis Hills resident who believes the bills aren’t restrictive enough, called them “a Realtor’s dream, a neighbor’s nightmare.â€