Lewisville staff outlines short-term rental permitting, density options; council delays decision

Lewisville — City staff told the Lewisville City Council on April 14 that public surveys and an open house show residents want some limits on the density and placement of short-term rentals, and staff presented several regulatory options including linear-distance buffers, block-face limits and multifamily percentage caps.

Chris McGinn, Lewisville’s director of neighborhood and inspection services, told the council the city currently has a ceiling of 130 active short-term rental permits and that the number of permitted units has grown from 77 at the time of the council retreat to 94 permitted units, with about 16 additional permit applications in progress. “We’ve had identified that there were short term rentals that wanted a permit during the interim prohibition…those have now gone through the permitting process,” McGinn said. He estimated the city was looking at roughly 110 combined applications and permits once in-process applications are completed.

McGinn said about one-third of permitted short-term rentals are remitting or reporting hotel-occupancy taxes and that finance will send notification letters; code enforcement will follow if owners do not comply. He said the city is planning a host-compliance software upgrade that would allow staff to…