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City staff outline licensing, zoning and tax steps for short-term rentals; estimated 2024 tax revenue small
Summary
Planning staff proposed code changes to license and regulate short-term rentals (STRs), including lodging licenses and zoning performance standards. Staff estimated current platform-collected sales tax at $6,550 for 2024 and said full licensing including lodging tax would have generated an additional $7,321.
City planning staff presented a draft framework for licensing and regulating short-term residential rentals (STRs) at the April 14 council meeting, outlining municipal code amendments, zoning performance standards and a licensing process administered through the city’s sales-tax office.
Scott Hobson, acting director of community development, explained that Pueblo currently has no specific licensing procedure for short-term rentals and that the lodging code (Title 9, Chapter 5) is silent on residential short-term rentals. He said city staff would need to amend both the lodging and the land-use code (Title 17) to define STRs, identify allowed residential zoning districts and establish performance standards for parking, occupancy, trash, noise and safety.
Licensing, taxes and enforcement: Hobson said most Colorado cities issue STR licenses through their sales-tax offices, use a self-certification checklist for applicants, and require a lodging license plus sales-tax registration. He said licensing would include zoning verification by planning staff and that enforcement (for example, violations of trash, parking or occupancy rules) would use the existing lodging-code enforcement process and the police department’s code-enforcement resources.
Revenue estimate: Staff told council that platforms that collect and remit taxes for listings (Airbnb, HomeAway/VRBO) remitted $6,550 in city sales tax in 2024 under existing agreements with the platforms. Hobson estimated that if lodging tax (4.3%) had been applied via a city-issued lodging license, the city would have collected an additional $7,321 in 2024. He recommended a $100 annual lodging-license fee per STR and proposed occupancy limits based on bedroom count.
Council questions: Council members asked about one-license-per-property (staff said licensing would be by address), whether annual inspections would be required (staff proposed self-certification with complaint-driven enforcement, not annual inspections), and the administrative cost vs. revenue. Several members said they supported moving the draft code amendments through the planning-and-zoning work session and public hearing process.
Ending: Staff will work with planning and zoning to prepare code text amendments, public hearing materials and an ordinance if council decides to move forward; staff emphasized the objective of treating STRs comparably to hotels and other lodging for taxation and public-safety standards.
