Reading planners report short-term rental ordinance moving to council; registration, inspections and business-license rules highlighted

City planning staff told the Reading Planning Commission on Sept. 16 that the city’s draft short-term rental ordinance has advanced to City Council and will face a hearing in the coming week, and staff summarized how the ordinance will change registration and enforcement procedures.

The ordinance update expands beyond the earlier one- and two-family framing and applies to a broader set of residential and commercial uses, requires short-term rental operators to obtain a business license and to register with the city’s housing-registration process, and adds inspection and enforcement mechanisms tied to zoning, building, property-maintenance and police reports.

At the workshop, planning staff said the short-term rental draft (last circulated in staff materials as 05/24/2024) had been presented to City Council and that a hearing was scheduled for the coming Monday. Staff and council discussion focused on definitions, enforcement steps and how preexisting nonconforming operations would be treated under the new rules.

Why it matters: the ordinance provides a pathway for many existing short-term rentals to formalize operations through a business-licensing and registration process, and it introduces enforcement levers for zoning, building-permit and nuisance complaints. That will affect property owners who currently operate short-term rentals and neighboring residents in districts where such use is newly permitted.

Key points from staff and commissioners - Coverage and definitions: the draft expands the ordinance beyond one- and two-family dwellings to "residential uses" and to certain commercial districts; staff said the ordinance text specifies allowable locations and spacing rules, including a 1,000-foot separation in some districts. The change was described as a technical clarification to ensure the ordinance applies to a range of residential arrangements and to townhouses and apartments where allowed. - Registration and licensing: short-term rental operators will be added to the city’s housing-registration roster and will need a business license; staff said the registration will feed into periodic property inspections, which staff said typically occur every two years for registered rental properties. - Enforcement coordination: police, code enforcement and building-permits staff will be able to share incident reports as triggers for zoning or licensing reviews; staff described an existing practice of police providing a report and an assignment number that the zoning office can reference during enforcement. - Nonconforming properties: the ordinance will create a route for existing short-term rentals to become legal where permitted; staff noted that preexisting, legally established nonconforming uses retain rights so long as they were lawfully established at the time. Properties that are not currently legal will be notified and given a process to pursue compliance or permits.

Clarifying details and next steps The Planning Commission has prepared a resolution recommending City Council approve the ordinance; planning staff said they will provide a resolution number and finalize blanks in the draft resolution for the clerk’s office. Staff also noted an associated housing-registration form will need edits to collect short-term rental type and to place units into inspection cycles.

No formal Planning Commission vote was recorded at the workshop. City Council had been briefed and the ordinance was scheduled for a council hearing in the week following the Sept. 16 workshop.

Ending: Planning staff advised the commission that enforcement will rely on interdepartmental coordination among zoning, property maintenance, building/trades, the business-license office and police, and that the ordinance’s permitting and business-license requirements are intended to create multiple avenues to bring unregistered short-term rentals into compliance.