Short Term Rental Ad Hoc Committee adopts meeting calendar, plans town hall and online public comment

The Short Term Rental Ad Hoc Committee voted to adopt a five-meeting calendar and to gather public input on its draft ordinance through a city-hosted online comment portal, a structured survey and at least one town-hall-style meeting.

Committee chair Christine (first name only in meeting transcript) opened the Aug. 15 meeting by proposing an accelerated timetable so the committee’s recommendations could be ready for city council workshops and votes this fall. “We sunset on Friday 12/12,” she told members, noting the committee’s goal to have recommendations considered at council workshops in October or November and for final council action no later than December.

Members agreed on a sequence of working sessions to refine the draft ordinance and to solicit focused public input. The committee scheduled the next meetings as follows (final calendar to be published by staff): meeting 1 — Aug. 22, 9–11 a.m.; meeting 2 — Sept. 5, 10 a.m.–noon; meeting 3 — Sept. 12, 1–3 p.m.; meeting 4 — Sept. 19, 9–11 a.m.; and meeting 5 — Oct. 13, 2–4 p.m. The committee also penciled in a public town-hall window in early October, targeting Oct. 7–9 for an open forum and Sept. 29–Oct. 10 as the public comment window tied to the survey.

The committee decided public outreach should prioritize written, trackable comments directed to a single city-hosted site rather than relying on social-media posts. Staff advised that only comments submitted through the city’s designated online public-comment portal will be counted as part of the formal record; members stressed that social-media posts were useful for outreach but won’t substitute for formal submissions.

To broaden access, members agreed to multiple outreach channels: a public survey (with operator/resident identity questions), an email blast to registered operators, targeted HOA and neighborhood-group notices, municipal channel announcements, the Galveston Daily News, and other community distribution lists. Committee members volunteered to supply draft outreach copy and to work with Marissa in city communications to ensure consistent messaging. Committee member Sheila Lutzbaum and others recommended bilingual outreach and paper/door‑to‑door options for residents without internet access.

The committee also agreed to require that operators be asked on the survey whether they are ‘‘operators’’ or ‘‘residents/property owners’’ so responses can be analyzed by constituency. Members discussed using a survey tool that forces answers to a set of quantifiable questions (with a small free-text box) so staff can more easily summarize responses for the committee.

Next steps: staff will publish an updated calendar and a single web link for the public comment portal; committee members will draft survey questions and outreach text for review at the next meeting.