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City legal staff proposes hotel/motel licensing ordinance to target nuisance properties
Summary
The city law department presented a draft lodging-establishment licensing ordinance to give Wichita local authority to license, inspect on complaint, and sanction hotels and motels that generate crime, safety or nuisance issues; staff proposed a $200 annual fee and said the approach is intended to be corrective rather than punitive.
Jan Jarman of the city law department briefed the council on an early-stage proposal for a lodging-establishment ordinance intended to give the city more direct tools to address persistent problems at hotels and motels.
Jarman said hotels and motels currently are licensed and regulated by the Kansas Department of Agriculture, and that the city lacks a local licensing structure that could allow more timely inspections and actions when properties generate complaints about violence, trash, bed bugs or life-safety hazards. The draft ordinance would require a city license (starting proposed fee: $200 per year), require insurance, allow inspections based on citizen or police complaints, and include administrative penalties up to suspension or revocation for repeated violations or chronic nuisance findings.
Jarman emphasized the proposal is intended to intervene early and not to make the ordinance a tool for immediate large-scale displacement; for life-safety issues the city would still move quickly but otherwise would start with notices of violation and compliance plans. Council members raised concerns about potential unintended homelessness impacts if properties are closed and asked staff how the city supported tenants during a prior state-ordered shutdown; housing staff described a rapid-response coordination that placed most residents that night into shelter or other housing resources.
Council asked staff to return with refinements on fees, inspection resources, possible inclusion of unpaid city obligations (such as property taxes) as eligibility criteria, and how licensing can be incorporated into the city’s digital-licensing portal.
Next steps: city staff will continue drafting the ordinance for fall consideration and will work with Housing, Police and MA-BCD to flesh out inspection procedures, fees and transition plans for residents.
