Wallsburg planners consider ordinance to bar short-term rentals in residential areas, set fines and permit route for hotels/bed-and-breakfasts

Spencer Foster, a staff member who drafted the language, presented a short-term rental ordinance and said it would ban short-term rentals in Wallsburg’s residential areas while still allowing hotels, motels, RV parks, campgrounds and bed-and-breakfasts if those uses were approved or located in a commercial zone.

The proposal would define short-term rental as residential leases under 30 consecutive days and treat hotels and similar lodging as distinct uses subject to the town’s conditional-use process. Foster said, “this ordinance says that these are not approved in Walsburg in residential areas” and that hotels, motels or bed-and-breakfasts “would be allowed in the zone that is for, like commercial.”

Commission members discussed how the town could prevent operators from claiming a listing is a bed-and-breakfast to avoid the restriction. Foster advised the commission to add clear definitions and a permitting or conditional-use requirement…