And welcome to our public safety and criminal justice committee hearing where we will review the current policies and procedures on managing short-term rentals in the City of Columbus.

Several city staff members are in in attendance today to present and share these processes, share more about these processes.

In addition, we will learn about policies and ordinances in other cities in relation to regulation regulating short-term rentals.

I would like to welcome our presenters today, Deputy Chief Smith Weir from the Columbus Division of Police, Tony Celebris, Deputy Director of the Department of Building and Zoning Services, Kevin McCain, Senior Policy Advisor for Columbus City Council, and Rashida Hansard, the Director of Income Tax for the Auditor's Office.

Of course, we have other staff here today, but we thank you for coming in to help answer any questions.

I'm Councilmember Emmanuel Reemy, I chair the public safety and criminal justice committee.

I'd like to thank my colleague, Councilmember Otto Beatty, for attending today.

And a reminder that this hearing is currently live on YouTube and Facebook and also live and being recorded for rebroadcast on CTB Columbus's government television channel three.

I want to share before we get begin that this hearing is exploratory and informational in nature.

That means we are not currently considering any language changes to the Columbus City Code.

Our goal today is to share with the community the work city staff currently engage in to regulate short-term rentals, hear about what other cities are doing, and then hear from our residents.

My office will work in partnership with the community going into the new year to identify the best improvements possible to ordinances and policies that work for everyone.

So without further ado, I would like to turn the floor over to our first presenter, Deputy Chief Smith Weir from the Columbus Division of Chief.

The Deputy Chief will present on the current situation regarding trespassing individuals at short-term rentals.

So thank you all for thank you, sir, for being here.

And Deputy Chief, the floor is yours.

Good evening.

On behalf of Chief Elaine Bryant and the rest of the Division of Police, thank you for the opportunity to come here and address City Council today.

Typically, when officers respond to residents or properties in the City of Columbus, they are contacting an owner or somebody or a responsible party of that of that establishment.

When we are responding to short-term rentals, uh, the agent or owner is not always readily available, nor is a landlord or a responsible party.

We receive these calls for service all hours of the day and night.

Oftentimes when the responsible parties are at work or at home or even asleep.

Sometimes when seconds count, when minutes count when we have to a situation we are dealing with, uh we are faced with a situation where we do not have the ability to contact where the owner is unavailable.

In those situations with businesses and other properties throughout the City of Columbus, for years, the City of Columbus and Division of Police have utilized the agent authorization letters or otherwise known as the trespass authorization letters.

These are signed by the owner or the landlord or responsible party and authorize the division of police and the city of Columbus to act on agents on the owner's behalf to conduct trespass of individuals that are on the property that are not acting legally or under the authority or the rules of the short-term rental in this instance.

The division of police currently has 2,273 agent authorization letters on file from properties throughout the City of Columbus and utilize these on a day-to-day basis throughout the City of Columbus.

It is our belief that requiring agent authorization letters to be signed as part of the permitting process for short-term rentals would be a responsible way for the short-term rental companies or owners to authorize us to solve problems when they are unavailable to solve them themselves.

Thank you, Deputy Chief.

Um, thinking about, you know, I maybe we should have prefaced this a little bit that you know, one of the things that we're trying to solve here is the few uh short-term rentals that happen to have parties, whether they be, you know, more than likely the hosts don't know about it, but but certainly this does happen in many of the platforms.

They ban those types, you know, that type of number of people and et cetera, but we know that they've occurred across the city.

Um I'm familiar with, certainly per familiar as a community leader back in my old days uh with trespass forms and trying to, you know, especially at shopping centers and others where you might have semis parking and other you know reasons why you might need to get on to the property.

Um we used to encourage the owners to sign those things.

I kind of want to just illustrate to the hosts again, like what tell me some types of things that these things would apply for beyond a party for for instance.

Like would when would this be applicable for you know to make sure that our officers can get on the property?

Yeah, I obviously the the number one reason or the number one thing we're concerned about are those large parties that have resulted in uh altercations or on a couple instances they've resulted in shootings over the past couple years.

Uh that being said, the number one offense that we've responded to at uh short-term rentals has been domestic violence.

Uh and then second, you know, secondary to that are domestic disturbances, which don't haven't risen to the level of violence yet, uh, but in which we have parties that are uh arguing that are uh in conflict that are having uh having issues and having troubles.

So in that instance, having an agent authorization, even though the illegal activity has not occurred yet, whether that assault is not occurred yet, but when we're trying to solve the problem of separating the parties, uh that would give legal authority for officers to act as an agent on behalf of the owner and trespass one of those individuals or both of those individuals from that property uh, you know, for the duration of that that evening or for the duration of their contract, uh their rental contract.

Uh so in that instance, it would be a way that prior to uh situation escalating the violence, we could solve the problem uh in instances where the owner or agent may be unavailable.

So explain today what what some of the problems have been for officers, you know, without this form today.

Yeah, I I think you know, again, the the big problem has been those large-scale parties.

Um because they typically, when we're getting called, it's middle of the night, it's 11, 12, 1 in the morning.

Uh officers are there.

Uh we've had instances where there are promoters that are promoting these parties that are at the door that are checking, you know, that are basically charging admission.

Uh the line is out the door down the sidewalk, uh, and officers are trying to deal with this uh in you know, in real time, uh in the middle of the night, and try to figure out who the owner of the rental is, try to find the contact information, try to wake them up and contact them.

Uh meanwhile, we've got uh you know young adults and even some juveniles that are trying to attend this party that are in their house, and the officers are again trying to get the authorization to solve the problem, to you know, break up the party to get you know those juveniles uh taken home uh to get the young adults to to go their separate ways.

Um and in in the matter of minutes, those are those are important things for us to have to deal with.

And sometimes it's uh it's very difficult in the middle of the night to get a hold of a responsible party.

If there was a trespass form, how would that same scenario be handled?

Well, if we had the trespass form on site and uh we had that authorization, officers uh the way we work it is that those authorizations, once they're signed, get uploaded to a system that the officers have access to in their cruisers on their phones, uh 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So whenever the time is, uh once they identify that the property itself is a short-term rental, they can look up, make sure that that authorization form has been signed, and then they have the legal authority to detain somebody.

They have the legal authority to issue that trespass.

If the you know the rules that have been established in the permitting process are not being followed, we don't have to wait for the owner uh to answer the phone to drive from an hour away or or wherever they may be.

Uh we don't have to wait for that to solve the problem.

And in the middle of the night, like I said, as things are happening, uh, we're not always uh you know afforded the luxury of time.

Understood.

Councilmember, do you have any questions?

Okay.

Well, we appreciate the recommendation.

I know these discussions have been occurring and trying to figure out ways that we can help solve that one that one problem in particular.

Um, you know, it's it's clear based on our our um regulations now, they can't have parties, and certainly, like I said earlier, the host or the uh platforms typically do not allow them as well.

But we we do not want those that type of violence in our community.

And so just this is the way that we think might have the most impact on solving, you know, or at least minimizing this type of a problem in the future.

So appreciate the recommendation.

We're certainly um as we move forward, we'll consider you know how that'll look and hopefully make it as easy as possible through the application process just to make it one more thing you sign.

So want to thank you for coming in today, Deputy Chief.

I know you got to run, but uh appreciate it.

Thank you for your time.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Our next presenter is uh Tony Celabriasy, the deputy director of the Department of Building and Zoning Services.

He is here to talk to us about the current short-term rental permitting process.

So, Deputy Director, I'm gonna send it right over to you.

The floor is yours.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, uh Councilmember Remy, Councilmember Beatty, thank you for being here and for the opportunity for building zoning services to weigh in on this on this critical matter.

Uh, I'm I'm accompanied tonight with uh by uh Latasha Kearns, who is our licensing officer in the licensing division within the department, and then with our other deputy director, uh Wendy Boots.

Uh and so I've got a short presentation we can go through.

And so the initial short-term rental or STR legislation passed in 2018 and was uh modified again in 2021 over concerns with neighborhood and guest safety.

Um at that time, uh we restricted who can apply for this to the property owner or a permanent occupant, which helped re helped us get more accountability in that process.

We also implemented background checks uh for all the relative parties, uh, not only the applicant, but uh their statutory agent, their partner or managing member uh from that.

We also added a 24 hour local contact.

We've had uh good communication with uh public safety, the police uh with this, and we continue to try to uh improve that communication.

Uh we also require um background checks on whether it's a host or a property manager, just depending on what type of of uh setup that the owner has put into place for that short-term rental.

Uh to give you a background, this these are the numbers of the short-term rental licenses per year.

We are right now at a 1535.

That's the blue number.

As you can see, uh, we started this in 18 and then 19, we had quite a few.

We had 971.

Uh COVID took a big chunk out of us in 2020, and then it has grown and held steady over the last three years.

Uh, the red bars up there are the units that are that do not have uh or that are non-primary uh resident, which means that uh the owner does not live there.

Um it is a house or a unit that is or a carriage house or an ADU that is uh rented out as a uh short-term rental, whereas the remainder above the red line to the top, those are short-term rentals such as uh a room or a portion of a house where the owner lives on site.

And so as you can see, we've got a lot of units that don't have an owner on site, they're an investment property uh for these individuals to uh uh to rent out and uh and provide themselves with income.

So talk about a little bit about the application process and the information we we require.

We do require a 24-hour local contact, as I said earlier, phone, email, and their home address.

Um we also require information about the host, whoever is actually doing the listing of the property on an online platform.

We want to know who that is.

Uh we want to know who the man property manager if one is being used, and then we work with uh number of bedrooms as the county has it recorded, and our maximum number of occupants is three times that number of bedrooms.

And some of that is derived from the state building code with how many people can be housed in a single bedroom before you turn into uh a different different class of house.

Um we also want to know all the listing platforms.

We've got very good relationships with most of the platforms, and uh they work well with us when we have questions or concerns.

Uh and then we also want to know um the list of all other short-term rental properties that an individual has within the city.

Um again, unfortunately, with our experience through code enforcement over the years and with short-term rentals, um, you know, some landlords or owners, uh, if they treat one of their properties without without respect and don't maintain it, they tend to do that to other properties.

And so we want to know what their portfolio is so that we can work with them to get them up to up to uh uh you know get the place up to speed so that it's uh it's a good uh contributing um parcel within the city.

Um so right now the the applicant provides a proof of identity, they're resident, uh a letter of good standing from Columbus Division of Income Tax.

Uh again, we do BCI background.

Um there is ways for people to do it in person in our office or online uh through the web check agency.

They also, if they're an out-of-state owner, fast fingerprints outlets are nationwide, and they can do that there as an application fee of $20.

Should they get approved for a uh a short-term rental, and that part of that is the background checks sometimes uh disqualify people.

But if you do get approved, then if you are a permanent occupant in the in the house, uh it's $75.

If it is a vacant unit that the entire structure is or unit is uh rented out, and that's $150 per year, and is one year uh license from the date of issuance.

Um talk a little bit about uh suspension or or penalties.

Um licenses can be suspended or revoked for uh uh with any felony within the last seven years.

Uh mainly we look at drug-related activity, prostitution, human trafficking, gang related or offenses of violence.

Uh and then also we do uh account for working with with police department uh excessive calls for service of three or more in a 12-month period.

Some of those can be noise or trash, but there can also be other issues that uh when PD is out there.

There's a level of of subjectivity that we have to apply, and we try to use some common sense.

Um, but obviously we want owners with these with owners that are quality individuals that are going to um you know be renting out a space that someone would want to be in and not disrupting the rest of the neighborhood.

Um so with that, I'm willing to answer any questions.

I'm looking forward to hearing what a lot of the private sector folks have to say, and and we we recognize that uh you know city code can always be made better, and so we're willing to sit down and listen and and potentially adjust the uh the code going forward.

So thanks for the opportunity.

Yeah, thank you, Deputy Director.

Um, there are several cities around that have required uh, for instance, the license verification to be the onus to be on the platform.

Um I'm just curious if if we were to do something move in that direction where before there's different models, but one is before they're ever listed on say an Airbnb or VRBO, the platform itself have has verified the license with the city.

Um would that be something that would be helpful to you today?

Because I believe the staff is doing it backwards, right?

Is that is that correct?

Yeah.

Yeah, we would we would anything that helps us verify or helps the the platforms verify on the front end before anything is registered, that would prohibit or that would prevent uh what we do see today, which is that there's a number of individuals that just blatantly decide, well, cost of doing businesses, I'm gonna list it, and if I get caught, I get caught, then I'll ask for forgiveness later.

I'd much rather have us be able to run that BCI check and ensure that we've got people with uh with good backgrounds running these operate running these these facilities.

Okay.

Well, I know one of the things that I want to talk about is a little bit more, you know, at some point in time get moving this process a little bit more online and and updating it.

We've you know, looking at other cities, it's pretty easy online to submit an application.

The the licensing section uh was was moved over to BZS uh about a year and a half ago, was it?

About a year and a half ago, and we uh among with among other uh licenses that we issue, and we are in the process of working that into our online um platforms so that it does make it easier because bottom line is we don't want to be a hindrance for that for people to do this, but we do want to make want to make it as easy as possible for them to get a apply, and then uh we can do our our proportion, our review on the back end and and then hopefully move forward and have a good Airbnb or a good short-term rental.

So just to expound upon you know the process.

So these these guys are over licensing.

But when there are complaints that come in about a property, say trash or other things that like that, who which part of the the zone or zoning process?

Who's going out there and investigating that?

So the majority of the complaints will um aside from maybe the 911 complaints that that the police department handles in real time, uh, we would get complaints through 311.

Uh also I think the licensing division occasionally gets some, but mainly through 311, and that would be um funneled most likely to code uh code enforcement, which is also a division within our department.

They would send a code officer out there with something like trash or debris, probably within uh 48 hours to get out there and look and see if there's a problem, and if there is, they would write of a violation for it.

And then they would do the research through our systems to uh see who owns it if they can't, if it's not in our system, then they will begin working with the auditor's office to find out who's the owner, and we will track them down and try to get them, get them set up properly.

Have there been any issues contacting the owners or the contact person that's listed on the on the license?

I don't think we've we've had much issue.

Our code officers are very good sleuths.

Um they know they know a lot of different ways to track down who is an actual owner, even with it being an LLC.

Uh, because as we know, uh so many of these investment properties now are being put into individual LLCs and they have a a um an agent somewhere, usually an attorney.

And so there is some hoops for our folks to jump through, and that's why you know we do ask for a lot of this information from multiple people's information so we can track it down a little easier.

Yeah.

All right, thank you, Deputy Director.

All right.

I appreciate the uh opportunity to hear from you this morning or this this evening, excuse me.

Our next um we're gonna, you know, I appreciate the work that the licensing section is doing.

I know that it was a big move over to uh from one department division of police over to building and zoning services, but we're we're happy with the work that's being done, to make sure people are properly permitted and and all the due diligence.

So I want to thank both of you guys for that.

And then we're gonna continue to work uh with your office to ensure that there's continuity and efficiency for the residents of Columbus.

So thank you very much.

Our next presenter is Kevin McCain, our senior policy advisor with Columbus City Council.

Kevin will be walking us through how other cities are handling neighbor notification, for instance, when a license is issued while we're unsure which direction we're gonna go.

We would like to take to take um the opportunity to hear some legislative solutions to community concerns.

So, Kevin, the floor is yours.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chair Remy.

Uh, Councilmember Beatty, my name is Kevin McCain, senior policy advisor to Columbus City Council as a member of the legislative research office.

Here this afternoon to present a sample of our research on short-term rental notification requirements.

I'll begin by reiterating that we are not advocating for any of these procedures.

Our job here today is to simply share what other cities do when it comes to short-term rentals and notifying neighbors.

We do not have any draft language prepared to pursue because at this stage we are still exploring what options are out there.

We looked at examples from here in Ohio, the U.S.

and even some international destinations to provide an all-encompassing comparison.

Cities in Ohio will present the most obvious comparisons as we all operate under Ohio revised code, so it's probably easiest to consider code language and policy from those examples we found.

So there are four things to consider when regarding neighborhood notifications that we were looking at.

Um and comparing these from municipalities all over kind of gives us a context for developing or amending our own Columbus City code here if we choose to go that route.

But typically we looked at four things.

Who would be responsible for sending the notice to neighbors?

When is it sent, who must be notified, and the method of verification.

Our current practice here in Columbus, uh, as uh said earlier in the presentation, we do collect 24-7 local contact information from our hosts during the application process period.

This information is subject to public records requests.

It's important to note that.

Um but collecting this information was always intended to assist both the hosts and the neighbors to connect when minor issues might arise.

Um, you know, examples being noise, trash, parking, uh, something along those lines.

That information has never been made public, uh, although again it is uh uh subject to public records requests.

This is just excuse me.

This is just an uh list of some of the cities that we examined their code.

So again, we looked at the state of Ohio, some like cities here in the United States, and then again, also looked around the world um at some popular tourist destinations to see what it is, how they handle their neighbor notification requirements there as well.

Looking uh to our neighbors to the north in Toledo, uh, they have in their code in Chapter 70203 F that applicants must send notice to adjacent directly across and diagonally across properties within 48 hours of applying for a short-term rental permit.

Um they can do so by first class mail or hand delivery to all property owners.

Uh and that's something that we saw in a lot of cities around the world that there are options for hosts to notify their neighbors.

Our neighbors to the immediate west in Grandview Heights.

Uh the applicant must notify surrounding parcels as part of the initial planning commission application process.

So, in order to receive a permit there, you have to uh be approved by the planning commission in Grandview Heights.

Um there is a hundred dollar application fee to the building and zoning uh department, but it is the applicant that is required to properly notify the surrounding parcels as part of the Planning Commission application.

Some of the cities across the country that we found that require a special notification, Columbus, Georgia, the applicant must notify adjacent property owners with a proof of receipt, such as a neighbor's signature or a certified mail return receipt.

Uh and then in Sedona, Arizona, we found they require notification by certified mail or hand delivery prior to offering the property on any short-term rental platform.

A few other unique requirements that we found.

Austin, Texas was a city that we found where the city is responsible for handling the notification to adjacent neighbors, uh, with the applicant paying a $50 notification fee as part of the licensing process.

Most cities that we saw, it was the host themselves who were responsible, but in Austin, it's the city.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, the owner must notify adjacent and across the street properties, but also included that you had to notify all units on the same floor in a multifamily dwelling complex.

Um, and then they have within 30 days of receiving the license.

So a lot of cities have different timing requirements of when this needs to be done.

Portland, Oregon uh has a notification requirement and also a two-year renewal in case you have new neighbors that move in.

Um so that would that process is on a cycle.

Uh and also it uh it requires uh hosts to notify the neighborhood association or a civic association, or here in Columbus, that would probably be the area commission in neighborhoods as well.

Norman Oklahoma, uh they sent or require notification with information for the owner and the local contact, but as well as code enforcement and the police resource lines as well.

These are some examples of cities that require the 24-7 local contact information to be shared.

Some cities just require notification that this is going to be a short-term rental, but there are a lot of cities that require the 24-7 contact local uh local information to be shared as well.

Some of those municipalities go a step further uh by including a response time mandate.

So the city of Toledo uh says that uh host must respond within 45 minutes.

Summit County Colorado, one hour, lots of different cities around the world have uh that included as well.

So some key considerations uh to consider for city council if they're going to go down this route is uh the timing of the notification, whether or not this is something that would take place on the front end before a permit is approved or after.

Um then also we would have to consider proof and verification and how we are handling making sure that the notification occurs.

And then again, the the example from Austin, Texas is unique in that it has the city who is responsible for notifying all the neighbors.

That is something we would consider as well.

And then again, the ongoing requirement that you see in Portland, Oregon for every two years renewal cycle.

Uh something I just wanted to point out that while City Council considers all the menu of options that we have listed here and many more, uh, there are resources for neighbors currently.

Uh we have worked with the platforms, both Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, you know, for many years here, and we know that the platforms take these issues seriously, and they have neighbor resources that they promote as well.

Um I didn't want to miss an opportunity to share that that Airbnb, you can go in to their website and request a call, or you can um you know uh report a concern online.

That Airbnb, you can go in to their website and request a call, or you can you know, uh report a concern online.

VRBO has a very good website that does very similar things.

So neighbors should know that while city council is considering regulations, there are currently resources that exist uh and help.

With that, happy to answer any questions.

I think uh one of the things uh about the Airbnb and B RBO line, my understanding from the host alliance when we met with them was that they um are very responsive.

So if there's a complaint that goes into Airbnb, they're typically getting a hold of their contact uh immediately.

So and that's 247.

Um thank you for your research on this.

We're hopeful that the um short-term rental owners, the hosts themselves, and certainly the community members, you know, give us feedback on some of these ideas and certainly as we look at the legislative opportunities to um make improvements on our art uh a pretty robust uh set of legislation to begin with, thanks to you and and former council members that that sat in the rule.

So uh our final city staff member um tonight to answer a few questions is Rasita Hansered, the director of income tax at the city auditor's office.

Rashida, my goal is to learn a little bit more about tax processing as it relates to short-term rentals.

So could you walk through some of this, like what what taxes apply to short-term rentals, for instance?

Good evening, Councilmember Remy and Councilmember Batty and those in attendance, and thank you on behalf of City Auditor Megan Kilgore for the opportunity to speak a little bit about tax collection for short-term rental.

Uh simply to answer the first question, uh the taxes that apply to short-term rentals is a 5.1 percent excise tax.

That tax is uh lodged against the guest and it is collected by the host.

It's what was that?

A five point one percent excise lodging tax.

Okay, what we're calling it, yes.

I see, okay.

And then um how are they collected today?

Absolutely.

So currently at this time, when someone goes to a short-term rental, they are automatically charged that 5.1% excise tax.

That tax is subsequently collected by the host or for our purposes, the the owner of the property, and that host is thereafter required to file a tax return and pay the tax for the preceding month.

So they file for the preceding month that it's collected on the 20th of the following month.

So, for example, if I'm renting a property in January, I'm going to be remitting the return in the tax February 20th.

Okay.

And then are those typically can they be filed electronically or are they filed uh through the mail?

Uh what how how does that work?

Absolutely.

Um, and that's a terrific question because at this time, 98% of short-term rental taxes are paid and collected online through our online tax platform CRISP.

Um this was implemented for short-term rental tax um in 2023, 2023, excuse me, and since then 98 percent.

I would probably to be honest, think we're closer to 99 percent, but there's uh no 100 of anything when it comes to tax collection.

But we are very much there close to that.

That would be a miracle if if it was, right?

It will be.

Yes.

So um there is uh so of the one the 5.1 percent, excuse me, 0.5% is remitted to the city as an administrative fee to assist with the work that we do to collect it.

Um the re the remainder of that 5.1 percent, all of it goes back to a certain degree to the community.

And so let me give you those specific numbers.

Uh 2.39% goes to the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1.68% goes to the Cultural Services and Community Enrichment.

Uh uh 60% goes to emergency human services fund for the city, and uh 0.43% goes to uh the Affordable Housing Trust.

Okay.

Um do you have a sense?

I I didn't ask you this question ahead of time, but do you have a sense like how many um returns are being uh remitted every month?

We do, and I was actually able to look at this before coming over.

So currently we have in our system uh about 1600 uh short-term rental accounts, and of those 1600, about 1200 are currently active.

And those 400 can be inactive for a number of reasons.

For the most part, it's because they don't have a current short-term rental letter of good standing.

Okay.

Councilmember, do you have anything?

Okay.

Well, thank you for giving us a little bit of additional information on the taxation side of things.

You know, I one of the things we've talked about, and I think some of the limitations that we have with our system is having the platform can collect the the tax.

Um, but certainly, you know, that may be something you know to look at in the future is you upgrade and and everything else.

Um, you know, we want to make sure that again trying to make it as com as easy as possible for everybody involved.

But I thank you for coming in today and and having this discussion.

Thank you.

So I'm gonna move on now to our speakers.

I appreciate the opportunity to hear from our presenters.

Um we have uh five individuals that signed up this evening.

So we're gonna invite those speakers to the podium to share their thoughts for up to three minutes.

Um when you get to the podium, please state your name for the record.

And if those who signed up are not present, we will move on to the next speaker that signed up.

We also had four written testimonies that will be submitted to the clerk's office.

So um I'm gonna first up ask Dave Doctor um to come forward.

And again, you have three minutes.

Um thank you for coming down and welcome to council.

Appreciate your testimony.

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity today.

Um I do think the short-term rental license number needs to be on the rental so that people know they're renting from a house that's licensed for the consumer.

Because otherwise they can't tell them.

Also, it sounds like it would help out the organizations here.

Um I really do feel you have to have some contact name that is able to respond within a reasonable amount of time, whether it be an hour or 45 minutes, whatever.

We should have numbers out there because as residents right now, I keep seeing about party houses or other problems, and I don't know how well they're being addressed.

And I know I'm addressing you guys right now, but I'm allowed to ask questions this direction too, like on the short-term rentals.

How often are licenses being revoked?

What we can do, actually, I'll let you give your testimony.

Okay.

Uh, and then um we'll have somebody follow up with you, you know, okay right after.

And then also like what percentage of the calls of police are going on are short-term rentals that are actually have a license versus don't have a license for a called short-term rentals.

Uh rental units, I shared a Philadelphia one, but I also know do we require smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in the homes?

Quiet hours should be after 10 o'clock.

You know, so basically, if it's there's so noise after 10, you can notify um the the either the 311 or the the landlord first, they have an hour basically to rectify the situation for the true quiet hours, which are currently 11 o'clock in most of the city here.

I would assume it's still 11.

Um then my feeling is I don't know, it says three per bedrooms the current code, three seems maybe high.

I mean, do a three-bedroom house with nine people.

Is that typical for the residential area for most of the homes in the area?

We get because it's still your do where these homes are rented in residential areas.

So it's two maybe a more accurate number.

And again, if there's no problems, no one's gonna know how many people sleep in there.

I recognize that, but for the problems is three really what a residential neighborhood is meant to be is residential.

And then the enforcement side again, having the contact and the other stuff, and maybe I don't know if they can do a deposit.

So if the call does come in for a thing, so it's some sort of a fine for the noise that goes to the person renting it to help offset the cost that's taking us, whether police calls or other stuff.

Um and then some sort of strikes.

I saw the three or four strikes.

I don't know how, you know, I agree with that in our rolling average to make sure we're getting rid of the problem ones and keeping things, you know.

There are plenty of good short-term rentals.

I think they are never gonna go away.

We just need to be managing the trouble ones.

And then I do think as a neighbor you should know how to call because I I saw the helplines, but we really don't know the listing number or the address and a lot of short-term rentals.

Say this area until you actually have the rental, you don't know the address.

So having either a contact name or the permit number, so we can say this permit number is causing a problem in the neighborhood would help the residents.

Does that make sense?

Okay, that's really my thoughts.

Well, we appreciate those that lists, and again, um we'll have I'll have somebody follow up with you to answer some of the specific questions.

But thank you so much for coming down this evening.

We thank you for the opportunity.

Our next uh uh speaker is uh Susan Summerfield.

Summerfeld, excuse me.

Summerfeld, excuse me.

Uh, and then after that, we'll have Charles Fitch.

Hello.

Welcome to council.

Um thank you for letting me speak today.

Um, my name is Susan Sommerfeld.

I live at 51 East Lincoln Street.

Um my house is um entirely surrounded by 14 short-term rentals.

Um that would be on Russell, Brickle, Kerr, and Lincoln.

I didn't go as far as Pearl.

I didn't go up to Summit, and I didn't go over to Warren Street.

There's 14 in that small area.

Um I'm actually not here to complain about that.

Um, there's out of the 140 short-term rentals um in Italian village, these 140 are businesses.

I don't think there's a strong enough recognition that this is a business.

Whether you own one or five or like one of my neighbors, 15.

Um, it's a business.

The one that's right next door to me, um sleeps 16 people.

He's very happy to advertise that.

And it's a four-bedroom.

Um, 50 Lincoln, right across the street, which is the bed and breakfast, also sleeps about 16 people.

So I fail to see the difference between those two.

Um 50 Lincoln, however, is zoned commercial in some way, and had to comply with a lot of requirements before they could be in business.

Um they also have signage, good lighting, they take care of the front yard.

Uh their parking area is clean, well tended.

Um there's the building is maintained.

Um, it's it's a lovely addition to the neighborhood.

Um, the one next door to me is an eyesore.

It's got rotted windowsills, broken screen door, it's got a rubble front yard.

Um, I haul the garbage cans in back and forth.

Um, otherwise they'd sit in the middle of the street.

He's he's a lovely young man.

I haven't had problems with any of the tenants, you know, the guests.

It's been quiet, they've been fine.

But is this an addition to the neighborhood?

Is this really what we want?

He's basically being extractive.

He bought the house and was um, I don't know, I'd have to call it lying to all of us, told us all he was gonna live there.

And as time went on, he wasn't gonna live there.

It just slowly, you know.

So is he getting the homeowner tax exemption?

Yeah, probably.

Did he get a loan because it was going to be a primary residence, even though he bought a house in Dublin and moved there three months later?

Yeah, probably.

You know, I mean, these are he would he went in with the idea that he was gonna extract as much value as possible and then sell.

So I don't think Italian Village is not opposed to the businesses sprinkled through the neighborhood.

That's not what the issue is.

The issue is there's no pride in owning this business.

There's they're not adding anything to the neighborhood.

There's not sprinklers in there.

There's no way I have no idea if they could get out if something happened.

So I would I think it should be probably dealt with in a similar way to a bed and breakfast.

Thank you so much, Miss Summerfield.

We put Summerfield, we appreciate you coming down today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um is Mr.

Charles Fitch here.

Okay, let the record reflect that Charles Fitch is not here.

Nat Shepard, and then Rob Lowenstein, you're next.

Welcome to council.

Please state your name and you have three minutes.

Hi, thank you.

My name is Nat Shepherd.

Uh I'm a personal friend of Susan.

Um, and it's gonna sound like I'm saying some things that are uh different than her opinions, but uh I want to start by saying um thank you, Susan, and those are valid concerns, and uh I want to echo them.

Um I run a business that provides co-hosting services and operational support for owners of short-term rentals.

Um we're we're a co-hosting business.

My company manages 26 short-term rental units for 21 different owners.

So far and away, um, mom and pop owners that have moved out of their primary residence for whatever reason, um, decided to rent it, maybe moved out of state, um, and then hired me to help with that.

Um so my business does that.

We also assist them with filing their monthly tax reports.

I have an assistant that files 21 monthly tax reports.

Um so the first point I like to make is that um the I would strongly support having the platforms collect and remit the taxes.

Uh, a lot of other large cities are doing that.

Airbnb and Verbo easily have that capability.

Uh, I would support it in a legislation change.

Um I want to make a comment on notifications and letters to abutting properties.

I I think it's challenging depending on the neighborhood.

There are some of us that live in Italian village in the short north where short-term rentals are extremely dense.

Um I live in Victorian Village, not far from Susan, and I have a four-unit short-term rental building across the alley from me.

I have an eight unit across the street from me.

Um I would get flooded with letters for properties that I already know about, and I wouldn't find it useful.

So I would encourage council and and our legislative review teams to consider the type of property or maybe the zoning of the neighborhood when thinking about a notification requirement.

Um, you know, I I don't for me managing 20 some rentals that would mean you know hand delivering potentially letters to adjacent properties of 20 houses.

It would, you know, I'd have to play um mailman for a couple of days to get that done.

Um other topics that I would encourage the council and our committees to review.

Um around the application and renewal process.

Uh I I strongly support the background check, but the renewal process is equally cumbersome.

Um I would support an online renewal.

Cincinnati, for example, has a three-year license.

Um, and as long as there are no strikes against that property, the license remains valid.

Indianapolis has a one-time lifetime license that is simply renewed with an online form every year, um, and the owner doesn't have to do anything unless there have been strikes against the property.

So I would support considering that.

Um I see that I'm at my time.

I have uh a few quick points if that's all right.

Um I want to touch on occupancy limits.

Um I would encourage consideration of a different rule there.

I know there are some state uh residential codes that we need to try to follow.

Um but I think hosts would agree that a one-bedroom property could comfortably accommodate four people, uh two in a bedroom and two on a pull-out couch is a fairly common layout.

I would I think if we were to look online, we'd see a lot of properties that are currently doing that.

Um but on the flip side, a five-bedroom property sleeping 15 people seems like a lot and a potential risk.

So I encourage a review of that.

Um another point that I don't think has been made yet is multifamily property.

Um at some point a multifamily building becomes effectively a hotel, a four-unit small multifamily that's four Airbnbs, maybe not, uh, but an eight or ten or twelve unit building that has eight or ten or twelve short-term rental licenses is effectively a hotel.

So I don't know where that distinction lies or how to approach it, but I think it'd be appropriate to review.

Um yeah, and then the final point I want to make.

Um, you know, I I'd encourage um data sharing with these platforms.

Um I think collecting and remitting that tax online will be a huge help.

We use a software that looks at and analyzes market data when I go on there.

I see 3100 active short-term rentals in Columbus, which is a lot more than the number of licenses we've issued or the number of people that are paying tax.

So I think there's potentially a lot of tax revenue there that's going missed that could be recovered if the platforms were required to collect that.

Yeah, thank you so much.

I appreciate you coming down and sharing your thoughts, Mr.

Shepard.

Thank you.

Have a great evening.

Yeah, are you willing to you know just engage with us more?

You seem to know a lot about the industry and things like that.

And in your um particular customers, um, what from a business standpoint, why do they choose to go into short-term rentals versus uh full-time rentals?

Sure, great question.

Um the 21, are they all in the Victorian village, uh Italian village area?

Yeah, I'm I live in Victorian Village, and that's where my connections are.

So most of my clients are in Victorian Village.

We have several homes in Clintonville.

Um, and we go out, I have one that's in actually in Westerville municipality and one in Reynoldsburg as well.

Um but typically it's uh an owner that has moved out of their primary residence and they were living there at the time and it was furnished, and they decided that they didn't want to move all their furniture, they want to turn it into a rental property since it was already furnished.

Path of least resistance was to hire a hosting company and run it as a short-term rental.

They still get their own license and hold the license themselves and go through the background check requirement.

Um, but then my company is typically handling the day-to-day operation of that.

We also have um clients that are out of state that um maybe have family here and bought a house to live in when they come here, or a client that has business in Columbus, buys a house here to come stay in once a month when they're here, and then hires my business to look after it when they're not here.

And in the Columbus marketplace, would you say that the yield on a short-term rental is exceeds the yield on a um in most instances on a full-time rental unit?

And I know it can be neighborhood by neighborhood difference, but yes, it does.

Um my opinion is that there are a few market segments that perform better than others.

Um large houses that can accommodate a lot of guests will typically produce more revenue than they would as a long-term rental, to Susan's point.

Um and then I think smaller studio units that are near downtown or Ohio State also have a much greater margin than how they could perform as a long-term rental.

I I'm connected to Jeff Smith and the Clamas Host Alliance as well.

I meant to say that in my introduction, but I'd be happy to participate in follow-up discussions.

Okay.

And and what type of, you know, what type of trends are you seeing in our market?

I mean, is our market becoming, you know, oversaturated or anything like that?

Is that starting to I know there's some markets mainly in tourist areas, but people like to come to Columbus where there becomes a somewhat of an oversaturation where the yields start going down and people get foreclosed on and other things like that or whatever.

Are you starting to see it see that in Columbus?

I I think I've seen that with some of my own clients not seeing the revenue numbers that they would like and deciding to sell or move into a long-term lease situation.

So uh I don't know definitively if we've hit market saturation, but I would say that it there is some pressure there and listings that have performed well in previous years, maybe uh maybe performing not quite as well more recently.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you very much for that additional information.

Of course.

Thank you.

Thank you so much again.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh Rob Loenstein.

It's Rob.

That's right.

I was like, what?

I was like, I thought that was wrong.

Sorry, Roy.

Roy Lowenstein.

Um, thank you for uh uh the opportunity to be here, Councilman Remy, Councilman Beatty and City staff.

Um as some of you know, I'm the zoning chair of the Near East Area Commission.

About a year and a half ago, I think there were four or five of the commissions represented at a meeting we had with Councilman Dorans on this issue.

And although the meeting was courteous at the end of it, it was a bit discouraging because um we got the message that um uh maybe not, you know, this might not move forward in any direction.

I do appreciate that the 2021 amendments did improve the situation.

But there are two basic things that our group was concerned about.

One is simply the proliferation of short-term rentals in particular neighborhoods, concentrations of them, and the other one was the lack of regulation, uh particularly in the area of safety.

And I think these remain concerns whether uh short-term rentals are continuing to proliferate at the rate they were before, I'm not all sure.

Maybe it has slowed down.

Um the problem with with this is that short-term rentals really bring nothing uh much of value to the neighborhoods in which they're located.

You know, on I live a block east of the East Market, and we have two of them on the block face across the street from me.

And there's a house that the owners put a lot of money into to fix up, but it didn't sell at half a million.

It's sitting there.

Is she going to turn around and make it another short-term rental?

Given that there's no control over how many of these.

What we're really hoping for are neighbors to move in.

As we all know, we have a shortage of housing in the community, and this is doing nothing to help.

I understand the economic incentive to try to make the most out of your property, and we do look to market forces as much as we can.

But I I would just emphasize we have a housing shortage.

These are not really doing anything much to help our neighborhood.

We just watch tourists go in and out of them.

And I so I would encourage that we do something in addition to the notification things that you are talking about, that's fine.

But could we limit the number of short-term rentals in a neighborhood, either by census track, zip code, or distance to other short-term rentals, or how many of them on a block phase, some kind of control so that in the areas that they are most focused on that each property as it becomes available doesn't become another short-term rental.

And then in terms of safety issues, um, we we are having something to to do with the number of um uh or the character of the owners and all.

But why are we not inspecting these for safety?

Um there are open stairways to the upper floors.

We have a whole bunch of uh unrelated people there.

These are the kinds of things that we regulate in terms of other related uses like rooming houses or congregate housing, but we don't regulate it here.

Uh we don't have minimum kitchen and bath facility requirements.

We don't have off-street parking requirements and so forth.

So we're not concerned about an owner occupant of a house having a basement or an extra bedroom, or even under the new ordinance uh if they added an ADU, although ADUs were basically promoted in terms of you know, elderly members of the family having a place to stay.

A lot of them are going to become short-term rentals.

Um we would just uh like to limit, we would just like to limit them in the areas like right where near I live.

It isn't anything like it is in the short north, as you heard that testimony.

It's not as intense as that.

But even there, the the person who spoke was, you know, would rather have neighbors than she would rather have transient people coming and going as if you know every building is a hotel.

So we would ask your consideration of those issues.

Thank you very much, and thank you for your um your commitment to the North Near East Area Commission.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, thank you very much to all of our um public speakers this evening.

I'd like to end this hearing by thanking our presenters for your participation tonight and the great work that you do throughout the year.

Um short-term rentals bring value to our communities, but also need to be monitored and permitted in order to achieve neighborhood safety and quality of life.

Tonight's presentations are a demonstration of our city's commitment to ensuring that short-term rentals work for all.

Please be in touch with our office as we move into the new year with potential updates to our ordinances and policies.

I want to thank our council team, Nancy Pryor Sully, Pedro Mejia, Dr.

Tanisha Pruitt, the communications team, and to the CTV team for their assistance and preparing for today's hearing.

I also want to thank the community for their support and for and for tuning in to today's hearing.

Thank you, everyone.

Stay safe and stay warm and have a great rest of your evening.

This concludes our hearing.