McKinney staff proposes low-touch short-term rental registration; council weighs enforcement, fees and legal limits
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Summary
City staff proposed an annual, no-fee short-term rental registration requiring 24-hour contact information to help police and code enforcement; council members raised questions about legal limits, enforcement practicality, estimates of how many units exist (estimates ranged from about 103 via VRBO to 300–450 citywide) and the option to revisit a fee after a year.
City staff presented a short-term rental (STR) registration ordinance to the McKinney City Council on Tuesday that would require property owners to file an annual registration with 24-hour contact information and would take effect upon publication. "We just dropped the ball," Michael Quint, executive director of development services, said of the delay in bringing a registration proposal back to the council; Quint said the staff recommendation is a low-touch, registration-only approach with no fee to encourage broad participation.
Quint said the city does not currently require STR registration and therefore cannot reliably count them; he estimated the number could be "anywhere from 300 to well over 450" depending on data sources and said a practical city estimate was roughly "300–350." Quint told council members staff preferred a no-fee start to maximize the number of registrants and avoid creating a participation barrier.
Councilmembers questioned enforcement and legal limits. One councilmember representing District 2 noted state law "doesn't allow cities much ability at all to regulate short term rentals" and described neighborhood complaints in areas without HOAs. City attorney Hauser told the council a reasonable administrative fee could be charged to support program administration but staff recommended against a fee at launch to capture a fuller universe of properties.
Chief Ellenberg said police respond to nuisance calls involving STRs around the clock and generally seek voluntary compliance: "We respond to those types of calls 24 hours or mainly in the nighttime hours ... I would say 90% of the time we're met with compliance." He said citations are issued when voluntary compliance efforts fail and that officers typically address whoever is in "care, custody and control of the house" at the time of the call.
Councilmembers also discussed technical approaches to identifying STR properties. One member said a quick VRBO search returned 103 McKinney listings; staff countered that platforms often withhold the physical address until a booking is made and said internal efforts to scrape listings were not successful. Staff suggested exploring automation via EnerGov or data tools to streamline registrations and provide a police dashboard with contact information. Quint said staff could revisit implementing a registration fee after a year based on participation and staff workload.
The council received the presentation for consideration on the regular meeting agenda; staff recommended placing the ordinance on the regular meeting for action and the council agreed to receive it. No formal ordinance vote occurred during the work session.
