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Council reopens short‑term rental discussion; staff recommends registration, inspections and software enforcement tools
Summary
Council reviewed recent litigation and neighboring cities’ approaches to short‑term rental rules. City staff recommended regulatory guardrails—zoning limits, annual permits/inspections, objective occupancy measures and software-based listing‑scraping—to balance resident concerns and legal risk.
The Keller City Council spent a portion of its May 5 work session revisiting short‑term rental (STR) policy options after recent court activity and changes in neighboring cities.
Staff (Stan) summarized the litigation landscape: several appeals‑level cases remain pending, with at least one matter remanded from the state supreme court. Based on peer cities’ ordinances, staff outlined a likely defensible path that stops short of an outright ban: restrict STRs by zoning district, require annual registration and inspection, set objective occupancy limits by square footage or bedroom count, and require fees to fund enforcement.
Councilmembers raised enforcement and revenue questions. Staff recommended evaluating third‑party compliance tools that ‘‘scrape’’ Airbnb/VRBO listings, flag noncompliant advertisements and provide a basis for registration and follow‑up. Council discussed a two‑pronged public outreach approach: a focused stakeholder group including local operators and neighborhood representatives, plus wider public input; staff said the city would also collect an initial scrape to estimate current STR numbers.
No ordinance or vote was taken; council directed staff to return with options informed by peer city models (North Richland Hills, Grapevine), a proposed enforcement workflow and cost estimates for a listing‑scraping service.
