Planning Commission recommends short‑term rental rewrite with 20% per‑block cap

The Stillwater Planning Commission voted 5‑0 on April 21 to recommend that the City Council approve a text amendment to Chapter 23 that would require licensing of all short‑term rentals within city limits, strengthen application and enforcement requirements and, in RSS and RSL single‑family zones, cap short‑term rentals at 20% of dwelling units on a block.

Henry Bibelheimer of Development Services told the commission the rewrite repeals the present short‑term rental ordinance and replaces it with seven sections focused on enforcement and compliance. “Tonight, we’re looking at a text amendment for short term rentals,” Bibelheimer said, and staff displayed an internal map showing “that’s approximately a 167 short term rental licensed.”

Why it matters: the rewrite shifts licensing to an administrative review (the Development Services director would approve or deny licenses with multi‑level appeals to the city manager, Planning Commission and City Council), requires applicants to submit an occupancy limit, house rules, a floor plan, property insurance (staff described a $100,000 minimum for a house as proposed) and a 24‑hour local contact who can respond within one hour. The proposal also removes the current 300‑foot mailed‑notice requirement and the automatic public‑hearing trigger for license applications.

Commissioners spent substantial time on the proposed 20% density cap for RSS and RSL blocks, rounding rules and grandfathering. Staff said any fractional calculation would be rounded up and that three blocks currently above the threshold would be grandfathered — existing licenses would remain but no new licenses could be issued there unless an existing license became inactive, surrendered or revoked. Bibelheimer said the 20% figure is a local, enforceable starting point and that other cities use a range of approaches, including distance‑based rules or owner‑occupancy limits.

The draft requires applicants to submit a guest‑screening plan and to consider publicly searchable registries during screening. Commissioners pressed whether a registry match would automatically bar a rental; staff noted the draft requires a screening process but does not impose specified minimum screening outcomes. “It is just saying you have to screen them. It’s not saying you can’t rent it to them,” Bibelheimer said, while another commissioner said the intent was to prevent renting when state law bars residency near schools.

Staff also said the city is evaluating vendor software to locate apparent unlicensed listings so the city (or vendor) can contact owners to bring them into compliance; the map shown at the hearing is internal only at present but could be made public if the city implements the proposed software.

On penalties and fees, the draft makes violations a class C offense with a per‑day fine (the draft text and discussion include per‑day penalties) and staff said fees will move to a consolidated manual fee schedule updated annually; staff gave preliminary fee figures (example: proposed license fee $200, resubmittal $100) as not yet finalized.

Staff recommended that the commission accept findings and recommend City Council approve the amendment with the density requirement. After discussion, a commissioner moved to recommend approval with the density requirement; the motion was seconded and passed 5‑0.

The commission also approved the April 7 minutes (motion carried with four votes in favor and one abstention) and adjourned; the next regular meeting is scheduled for May 5.