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City staff outline short-term rental licensing problems and recommend ordinance changes
Summary
Deputy planning director William Robbins told the council the city has issued 14 short-term rental certificates amid platform technical problems; staff recommended standardizing certificate expirations to December 31, setting a September 1 annual renewal start, and removing the online posting/certificate-number requirement.
William Robbins, deputy director of planning and development, briefed the Chamblee City Council on March 17 about the short-term rental licensing program and several operational challenges.
Robbins said the licensing department has issued 14 short-term rental certificates, with 4 pending incomplete applications and 5 certificates that have recently expired. He described technical limitations in the third-party platform Rentalscape that prevent reliable capture and verification of certificate numbers in online postings and said staff are unable to efficiently process renewals until those issues are fixed. "Due to these ongoing system limitations, staff is unable to efficiently process renewal applications at this time," Robbins said.
To address the operational issues, Robbins recommended three ordinance amendments: (1) modify certificates to share a uniform expiration date of December 31; (2) establish September 1 as the annual renewal start date so staff can process renewals before year-end expirations; and (3) remove the requirement and associated violation for posting certificate numbers in online rental listings because current software cannot verify that information. Robbins said staff will present proposed ordinance language for council consideration at a future meeting and asked residents to report suspected unlicensed rentals through the city’s GovPilot portal, app or code-enforcement contact channels.
