Council upholds planning commission approval of Type‑2 short‑term rental at 611 N. Oliver after neighborhood appeal

The council on April 1 considered an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of Conditional Use Permit CUP2024‑054 to operate a Type‑2 short‑term rental at 611 North Oliver Avenue (Ward 4). The appeal, filed by Councilmembers Sarah Bunch, DeAndre Jones and Mike Weidecker, sought to overturn the planning commission’s 5–1 approval and deny the CUP.

Jonathan Curritt, the city’s development services director, described the property and the CUP review. The house is an approximately 3,200‑square‑foot, two‑story structure on roughly three‑quarters of an acre at the northwest corner of Cardwell Lane and Oliver Avenue. Staff outlined six formal considerations for Type‑2 CUPs—zoning (property is RSF‑4 so a CUP is required), occupancy (city guideline: two occupants per bedroom plus two, giving a 4‑bedroom house an allowance of 10 occupants), on‑site parking capacity (staff identified space for four vehicles on the gravel driveway), proximity to schools (the property is outside the 1,000‑foot proximity limit to Leverett Elementary), density of licensed Type‑2 STRs (staff identified six licensed Type‑2 STRs within a quarter‑mile…