Lewiston planning commission debates short-term rental rules, asks staff to draft ordinance

The Lewiston Planning and Zoning Commission spent the bulk of its Nov. 5 meeting debating how — or whether — to regulate short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO listings in the city, and asked staff to draft a simple short-term rental ordinance for review at the next meeting.

The chair opened the discussion by noting Lewiston currently has no ordinance or definition for short-term rentals and that the commission should “actively move forward and get something in place.” Abel, the city staff member who presented the permits report, said the commission had received only one formal short-term rental inquiry and suggested studying other cities’ ordinances.

Commissioners compared two example ordinances that staff circulated: Heber City’s and Garden City’s. Jared said he preferred more clearly defined rules and found Heber’s approach adequate, while another commissioner called Garden City’s ordinance “overkill” for Lewiston. Abel said Garden City and Heber are tourist destinations and that Lewiston likely does not need as many rules.

Commissioners discussed specific regulatory tools and enforcement steps that could be included in a local approach: making short-term rentals a conditional use subject to annual review, requiring a business license and tying renewal to compliance with conditions, owner-or-property-manager proximity requirements (for example, living within 10 miles), parking and recreational-vehicle limits, complaint thresholds that escalate to revocation after repeated violations, transient lodging taxes, and numeric caps on how many short-term rentals would be allowed in the city.

Abel summarized options for implementation: add short-term rentals to the city’s schedule of uses as a conditional use, attach conditions to an annual business-license renewal, or adopt a stand-alone ordinance. He noted enforcement is limited without statutory teeth in the local code and recommended consulting the city attorney during drafting.

Several commissioners said they were open to either path but wanted a legal review. One commissioner said a conditional-use approach gives an easy enforcement mechanism — “You can pull it anytime if they don’t stick to their condition” — while others favored an ordinance for clearer, stronger penalties and to allow imposition of caps or owner-residency rules.

There was no formal vote to adopt a policy at the meeting. Instead, commissioners asked staff to draft a simple short-term rental ordinance based on the discussion, circulate it to the commission, and put the draft on the agenda for a future meeting. In the meantime, commissioners agreed they will consider a conditional-use application from the one property owner who has inquired under the city’s existing procedures.

The commission also reiterated concerns about preserving housing for long-term residents and avoiding the situation where investors buy multiple homes for short-term rental income. Commissioners discussed lodging or transient taxes as a revenue option and enforcement paths including business-license revocation and civil citation, noting local enforcement resources are limited.

The commission said it will have draft language prepared and reviewed by the city attorney before forwarding any ordinance to the City Council for consideration.