Planning Commission recommends short-term rental code amendments; calls for stronger enforcement and platform accountability

The Austin Planning Commission recommended approval of a set of code amendments that update how the city licenses and enforces short-term rentals (STRs), after an extended public hearing with dozens of speakers representing neighbors, licensed hosts, neighborhood groups and industry stakeholders.

The draft ordinance presented by staff would move much of STR regulation from the land-development code into the business code, treat STRs as an accessory use to residential uses, require licensing and life-safety checks, tighten local-contact requirements, and create platform-accountability measures (including requiring a license field on advertisements and a procedure for city delist notices). The proposal also asks platforms to collect and remit hotel-occupancy taxes and to provide quarterly documentation to hosts. Staff said the proposal reflects recent court decisions that limit the city's ability to adopt blanket prohibitions on non-owner-occupied rentals and that the proposed rules are intended to align with those decisions while improving compliance and tax collection.

Speakers at the hearing described wide differences in neighborhood experience. Multiple East Austin residents told the commission of repeated nuisance incidents and violence at properties they said were operating as unlicensed STRs and urged stronger controls, faster enforcement and no grandfathering of currently unlicensed hosts. Representatives of neighborhood organizations and housing advocates said STR proliferation reduces long-term housing supply and increases rents. Some speakers urged a pause on new permits, limits on future STRs, or…