Welcome to this follow-up public safety and criminal justice committee hearing on short-term rentals in the city of Columbus.

Today is an opportunity to revisit what we heard at our first hearing.

Hear updated recommendations from city staff, and continue gathering public feedback on what changes to city code and city policy may be appropriate moving forward.

So we're looking forward to hearing further from the Department of Building and Zoning Services.

We certainly value our partnership, and it's been uh you know, long time coming working through these things, but certainly uh we appreciate all the work that you put into this.

Um, Director Scott Messer, of course, and all the team over there for you know thought working thoughtfully since our first hearing to identify the best path forward.

We appreciate that partnership and the time that you put in to this work.

A reminder that this hearing is live on YouTube and Facebook, and it's also being recorded for rebroadcast on CTV, Columbus's government television.

Um, if you do wish to speak, um please make sure that you see one of my staff, Miss Nancy Soley or um Pedro Mejia and provide a speak a speaker slip.

I want to first level set before we begin.

This hearing is an ex is exploratory and inform informative in nature.

No legislation is before us today for a vote.

Our purpose is to take a fresh look at our short-term rental framework and determine what should be updated, clarified, or modernized in response to changes in the market, and what we have heard from residents and city staff.

The city first adopted short-term legislation in 2018 and updated again in 2021.

It is appropriate for council to revisit this code every few years, so our policies remain responsive to how the short-term mark rental market is evolving.

That is what today is a refresh, an honest look at what may need to change.

And so we have heard clearly from residents that in the worst cases, in the worst cases, short-term rentals can affect daily life in serious ways.

Unauthorized parties, noise, trash, violence, parking issues, and impacts on neighborhood character.

Those concerns matter, and this council takes those things very seriously.

At the same time, it's also important to say clearly that most short-term rentals operate within the rules and are being run by owners who are good stewards of their properties and their neighborhoods.

Our goal should not be to place unnecessary burdens on responsible operators.

Our goal should be to create a system that is modern and enforceable, efficient, and fair.

One that supports compliance, but gives the city better tools to address bad actors and problematic properties.

Today will help us move forward towards that balance.

We will continue the excuse me.

We will hear the recap, hear proposed changes, hear from residents, and continue working toward potential legislation before council recess in July.

If I would like to see if my colleagues have anything they'd like to add before we get started.

All right.

Well, let's without further ado, I would like to turn the floor over to our first presenter, Dr.

Tanisha Pruitt, legislative analyst who provide an overview of our previous short-term rental hearing.

Dr.

Pruitt, the floor is yours.

Thank you, uh, Chair Reimi and Vice Chair Ross and Councilmember Weich for the opportunity to come and set up our conversation here today around short-term rentals.

Um just as a recap of where we currently are.

This is not working.

Next slide.

Okay.

We uh held a hearing, the first hearing around this conversation uh last year, and during that uh conversation, what sort of came from that was that uh deputy chief weir shared the need to include a trespass authorization as part of the permitting process.

So that would allow officers to enter the property as well as remove um anyone on the property who was causing some sort of violation or disturbance.

Um he said that if the trespass authorization was in place with the permitting process, this would not have have to be an issue.

Um, and officers could immediately respond to calls for service and not have to find the owner um before they can uh enter the property.

So it just allows for a little bit more of a streamline process to um for officers to respond to any situations that may arise.

For the current permitting process, um we initially passed short-term rental legislation back in 2018.

Um that then had a modification in 2019, where they sort of added uh provisions around background checks for host and a regulatory sort of tax framework.

Um, and then there was a last modification in 2021, and that was to sort of strengthen enforcement around short-term rentals.

Um, and then here we are, you know, coming today.

We realize and recognize that there is still a need and work to be done around enforcement around short-term rentals with some of the growing issues that we're seeing.

And so what we know is that there are 1,535 permits that are currently being issued, but the majority of them are uh for non-primary residents.

Another thing that we discussed during that hearing was the uh potential for a neighbor notification requirement.

Um this will require neighbor notification, you know, in neighborhoods for neighbors that are a certain distance from the short-term rental.

Um, when I guess we'll be staying, uh we the legislative research office sort of shared info on what some of our peer cities have done around this.

You know, in Ohio, there are areas such as like Toledo, Grandview Heights, North Canton that have um some sort of requirement around notification, and then across the U.S.

we have Santa Fe, Nashville, um, Georgetown, Texas, um, just to name a few.

Another thing that was discussed during the hearing was the tax collection procedures relating to STRs.

So currently there is a 5.1% excess excise lodging tax that is paid by guests um and collected by the owner.

It's filed via an online platform.

Currently, there's about 1,600 um STR accounts, and of those, about 1,200 are active.

Um, so there's an interest again um to sort of remit the tax with the platforms instead of the guests, but through some of the conversations that we've had, you know, we come to understand that there may be some difficulties with this with the automatic remittances by the platform.

So we continue to we will plan to continue to explore that.

A few community concerns that we have heard.

Um one bag, there you go.

A few community concerns that we've heard since that first hearing is that uh, you know, there's the unauthorized parties that occur, so there's a lot of noise, trash, uh violence, violations that um we're seeing in some of these neighborhoods, um, excessive parking issues, right?

A lot of if they have a party or anything like that.

There's a lot of um cars taking up street parking, housing supply concerns.

Um, a lot of residents have addressed that the more, you know, um short-term rentals there are, the less available housing that there is for residents, um, and then the impact on overall neighborhood character.

Some concerns that were being um brought forth by short-term rental owners are excessive administrative obligations, so costs, you know, for permitting penalties for violations and damages, uh, compliance with state and local regulations, just that overall administrative hurdles they have to go through for those sorts of things.

Um, and then also frivolous and unnecessary complaints by neighbors.

So, next steps, where are we gonna go from here?

Uh, first we're gonna start with today at this hearing.

We're gonna hear from the Department of Building and Zoning Services who oversee the licensing section that issues short-term rental permits on potential cold changes and policy changes.

Uh, then we will also hear from residents today, and we will continue to provide spaces for resident input through a final comment period, and then lastly, the plan is to introduce legislation before council um goes on recess in July.

And this is the contact information for council member uh Chair Remy's office if anyone has any questions or comments.

Thank you very much for your time.

I turn it back over to you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Dr.

Pruitt, appreciate the presentation.

Of course, that recap is helpful because it reminds us that this isn't a brand new conversation.

This is a follow-up hearing, and so um we're looking forward to continued uh discussion as we um move through today.

Our next presenter is Tony Celebrizi, the deputy director of the Department of Buildings and Zoning Services.

Tony will walk us through proposed changes to city code and city policy regarding short-term rentals.

Thank you for your partnership, and the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Remy.

Um thank you, uh, Councilmember Ross and Councilmember White for being here and giving us this opportunity to uh to discuss this evolving industry uh that has a great good impact on the city.

And as you pointed out, Chair, uh some selected areas not such good uh good impacts.

And so um, you know, we uh we appreciated the hearing in December.

Uh we sent out a link to that hearing and ask for the industry for uh their suggestions or ideas or thoughts, and so a lot of the uh ideas and changes that we'll present today will uh include a lot of their suggestions.

Uh some of them are also staff suggestions.

So we're not tied to these.

We are willing more than happy to sit down and and work on the back end.

Um so let's uh start the uh all right.

Let's see.

Okay, there we are.

So just a quick overview, although Dr.

Pruitt covered it well.

Uh in 2018, we uh passed initial legislation regulating short-term rentals, and then uh we uh we modified it in 2021, focused heavily on neighborhood and guest safety because we were having lots of issues.

Um our uh licensing section uh worked to put together a program with BCI check uh and other information that is critical to knowing who owns these, and more importantly, who do we contact at one in the morning when there's an issue or even one in the afternoon.

And so we have been working at making sure our 24-hour uh local contact is uh is up to date.

Um so this is a graph showing starting in 2018 when that we first um uh legislated this.

Uh we had about 1,500 um short-term rentals last year.

The vast majority of them are non-primary um uh uh units, which means that the owner does not live on site.

Um and so as you can see, they've it's kind of held steady for the last three years.

Um not uh we will be getting some new numbers here soon, and we'll share those with you for what we started 2026 with.

Um so some proposed changes to better regulate short-term rentals, uh trying to balance both uh the neighborhood concerns, safety concerns, but also the business concerns as this is a a uh business within the city.

So the first item that we suggest under code change is to create a new city code chapter in Title V.

Uh it will allow easier access, uh it allow constituents easier access to find out what they have to do if they want to be become a short-term rental.

Uh right now you've got to surf through about three or four different sections and chapters to get everything together.

So we we would like to see it uh put together in under one uh one chapter.

Uh we do want to implement a fully online registration renewal system.

Uh that was a that was brought up at the last hearing.

And given the amount of online um submissions and progress that we've made in our department, uh, I think every permit in our department can be done online.

And so there's no reason why this can't be.

And so we would that'll be one piece that we'll be working for, along with um instead of having to jump through all of the hoops for renewal.

Perhaps we look at some sort of simplified form that is more of an affidavit uh saying that you know the owner hasn't changed, the host hasn't changed, the management company hasn't changed, and just be done with it, and possibly even a lower fee for the uh for renewals.

Um two things with that.

One lowering that fee and making it easier to renew.

We don't have any gaps between uh when uh over over the the time when uh a uh a short-term rental license would expire and they would renew.

The easier we make it, the better we are better off we are to make it uh so that we can continue to be in touch with that that short-term rental and know who's owning it and operating it.

Uh and then there was a lot of interest in notification to immediate neighbors, uh, whether it's at the initial registration or whether it's at renewals, uh, that is something we can we can hammer out and talk through as we go forward with this uh this discussion.

Uh but I think uh some level of notification to neighbors at some point in the process would be beneficial so that folks do know what's going on in their neighborhood.

Um and having worked with lots of our area commissions for 10 years, I know that a lot of people like to know what's going on in their neighborhoods.

So now under fees and fines, um, as I said earlier, possibly a reduced fee for renewals.

Um, but also you know, we have unfortunately some actors that when we work with the platforms to take down a uh non-compliant or an illegal registrate or uh uh uh short-term rental, they just put it right back up.

We've got a couple people that have done that three or four times on our staff, and it's a waste of our staff's time to have to look go look for it, make sure it's down, and so possibly looking looking at some graduated fines for noncompliant listings.

Um again, you know, operating without registration, continued nuisance to neighbors, disturbing the peace.

Um we also have those discussions about number of service calls to a specific address.

Um and again, uh lots of lots of nuance to that, but uh pieces uh of the puzzle that we can put together to come up with a better uh better law.

Um the policy changes, you know, automatic uh remittance of city taxes through the platforms.

I think everybody wants that for the sake of ease.

Um overnight occupancy.

This is where we're uh you know, when you sign up for an Airbnb or for a short-term rental, generally it's you know, your name, how many people are gonna be there, and then how many are under age of 17 or whatnot.

Um we bounced around the idea uh with an overnight occupancy limit of perhaps two per bedroom, two people per bedroom, and then an additional two guests allowed and pull out couches or pull out beds or couches.

Uh this is very similar to a lot of of uh rental properties uh that I personally have encountered over the years, and it goes by bed.

Um we do um so uh one caveat bedrooms that are in the basement, basement occupancy holds a uh challenge and safety concern for our department.

Um and so any bedrooms that are claimed to be in the basement of uh of a short-term rental, we want to talk about maybe an inspection of some sort to ensure that there's separation from the utilities, uh, that there is another point of egress, and that it it quite frankly uh complies with the Ohio building code and also with the fire code.

Our fire department uh for basement dwelling units has to have at least six and a half feet of clearance when you get the firefighters in there with all their gear on, they're tall people.

And so getting into the basements can cause challenges for them.

And so we do we want to make sure that habitable space is being met down there.

And then uh something we came up with uh a new a non-overnight occupancy maximum.

You know, we talk about parties, and um, you know, that's full, those tend to be full of non-overned occupants of a short-term rental.

Um need to work through how what the details are on that, but uh a total you know, setting a total number of maximum guests uh in a unit at any one time could potentially allow PD additional um support when they are removing people that are causing uh challenges and and disturbing the peace.

Um that leads into the encouraging the use of the trespass letter to allow police to remove non-overnight guests that are above the mac the unit maximum occupancy.

Um and another one that came up, we have a number of buildings in town that are apartment buildings, but they reserve two or three floors to be short-term rentals.

And don't know whether we want to set a maximum percentage of the units, you know, with in buildings that are four units or above, which are considered commercial, or should we, if they're if they are above a certain percentage, do we move them into the hotel motel uh section of code, which requires more uh safety features because they're acting like a hotel when you've got people that are coming and going and staying, there's more safety features required there than in a typical apartment building.

But if they take an apartment building, they're running like a short-term rental, there's a safe level of safety concern there.

Um that was it.

That's those were the main the main bullet points.

Uh again, we are we've we are excited that we're able to work through this this code section, make it better.

Uh make make it life a little easier on staff, but more importantly, it will take care of and hopefully reduce the number of issues that neighbors are having with these these uh non-occupied short-term rentals.

So with that, I'll answer any questions uh now or later.

Yeah, um, you know, one concern we've heard of from responsible operators is that the process can feel a little bit administratively heavy.

Um how could a fully online registration and renewal system along with simplified renewal affidavit when nothing is changed, make compliance easier for good actors?

It definitely will.

Uh the one challenge that we'll have on the initial um registration is we you know we require that background check to ensure that the people that are operating these these uh short-term rentals uh are um are good members of of our community.

Um those still have to be done uh in person because they're they're fingerprint-based.

Uh however, there are multiple locations, not just at our office.

There are multiple locations and places where people can go and do their fingerprints and get the get their get a background check and then they could email it to us or so we can attach it to their record.

We're willing to to continue to discuss and figure out what are the best ways possible to do that.

So I'd prefer it to be more automated we can make it, the more time staff has to actually handle situations as opposed to uh being stuck in the administrative mode.

Um can you walk us through um your thinking about fees and fines, like in particular how we structure different registration renewal fees and graduated fines and possible license suspension in a way that targets repeat violators?

Sure.

Uh so you know, you've we've got uh we actually have two fees when you're setting up.

Uh when there's first is the first initial review fee uh that staff does before they even accept it, and they want to make sure that everything is there first before they even accept it into the office.

And if not, and actually there's no fee associated with that, if there's not everything is there, they will give it back to the applicant, tell them what they need, and then when they do come back with it all, there's an initial acceptance fee.

And then once we go through the background checks and uh spend staff time looking at that to make sure that they qualify, then there's a secondary fee that to um to actually have get the license.

Um as far as um you know renewals, um, you know, there's no reason why we need to have either a two-tiered system if as long as they are not there's not a break in their registration.

Um if they are renewing on time and they're doing an affidavit, then there's no reason why we couldn't reduce that fee because our time it will be less in the processing of that application or that renewal application.

For the fines, um, you know, we we would we would be wanting to look at some sort of graduated fine for uh the our biggest thing we deal with are illegal operating uh short-term rentals.

Our initial fine, we always we just want compliance, so we're not going to jump right into some sort of fine.

However, if they continue to operate or they put it back up on the on the platform, then we're gonna look to some sort of you know $50 fine that graduates up to 250 before we go to court.

We do always have the option to go to court.

However, that is while the court is as efficient as it can be, uh we can make it things quicker and get compliance quicker if we can work with the applicant.

Um but we're not above going to court.

But I'd rather potentially see what we can do with with some low-end fines that will encourage folks uh to do the right thing, get registered, and uh and comply with what City Code wants, because that's that's our ultimate goal is to comply with code and everybody can go do their thing.

Something I'd be interested in is an annual report to council that would talk a little bit about you know how many licenses we are out there, um renewals, non-renewals, kind of that those comparisons.

And then looking at some of the violations and and problem properties that may exist over the year.

Is that something feasible for your office to be able to do?

Most definitely.

We are we have shifted them, uh shifted the licensing section over to our our main program of Salah that you all are familiar with that we we talk about all the time.

Um, but we'll be able to run reports, figure out you know how many have renewed, how many have dropped off, um, and then we will also have a uh as we continue to develop that that uh workflow, be able to figure out who who is having more um service calls or incidents, not only at their facility, but maybe in the nearby um area, because that was if you remember uh last year Wilson Street had a shooting, but uh those two those an incident last year and then the previous months before that was uh an initial shooting, but it was in the alleyway.

And um, you know, they couldn't attribute it back to it, but perhaps as a way that we can tie the two together just um to see if there's a trend there.

I don't want to accuse a short-term rental of being the cause of something if they're not.

But at the same time, if there is challenges from the their customers, then we need to figure out how to how to address it.

One uh the proposed changes would require uh hotel or motel license if 25% of the units in a residential building of four or more units being used as a short-term rental.

Can you talk a little bit about what issue that proposal is trying to address and why that threshold makes sense?

Again, if um you know short-term rentals are do act very much like a hotel in that they're very transient population, people aren't staying there as versus if you go and live in an apartment, you're gonna learn that that that unit, you're gonna know where the exits are, you're gonna know how to get out of there.

If we have a building that is built to apartment standards, uh while it's safe for apartment dwellers, um, it doesn't have all of the safety features that a hotel does when there are people that are coming in for staying for a day or two and then leaving.

They, you know, they may never fully learn the the layout and where the different egress points are if there is a fire or another another situation.

And so um, you know, the that what that was one of the concepts was moving them over into more of a hotel-motel situation if there's like I said, some percentage of their units are being used as short-term rentals.

We've got, I believe, three or four buildings like that where they're they've got two or three of the floors are all short-term rentals.

Um, and I don't want to say they can't do that, but if they're doing that, we need to make sure as a city that the people that are going in there are safe to be there and know how to get out in the situation type in some sort of crisis situation.

Would that process just for edification of the public?

Would that process be a lot more challenging for for there could be some challenges to it that would be going through our code enforcement division, uh, which is a separate division from the licensing.

Um they do have more resources, they've got a larger staff, uh, and they do regular inspections.

It would be it would include some uh some level of inspections, um, and then we would just uh you know, as you all debate the issue, figure out what level we feel comfortable requiring them to be at or what type of safety features they need to have.

And when I say safety features, I'm talking about exit signs and push bars, a lot of the same stuff that is in apartments or buildings, but not necessarily.

Understood, yeah.

Um neighbor notification that continues to be an issue that residents um raise, what would that look like to the immediate neighbors under the proposal?

What information would be shared?

Emergency contact name, phone number, email, what I would think that the the emergency contact or the 24-hour contact um name and email would be uh or phone number would be who we would what we would want.

We would our typical distances for notifications for rezonings, variances and other types of things is 125 feet from the edge of the property line.

And so I would at least advocate that um along with notification to uh area commissions.

How you so public safety obviously is front and center when we're talking about this, you know, especially when it comes to our residents.

Um how do the proposed changes around problematic properties, disturbance responses, disturbance responses and the ability for police to vacate occupants from short-term rentals if they're disturbing in the piece fit the broader goal of protecting neighborhood quality of life?

I think with the you know, with the trespass uh letter that um that we've talked about, it would allow um the owner to basically be telling the police that if you're called to my property and there are people there that are not part of the renting group or the folks that are that are the overnight guests, then the that letter authorizes police to remove those folks, not necessarily take them to jail or anything, but remove them from the from the premises to hopefully abate whatever the problem is that caused them to be there.

Um, without that, um, you know, you're gonna get a lot of everybody runs back inside, it quiets down, PD tells them to be quiet, they don't have much recourse, and as soon as they leave, they come back out.

We had a situation uh less than two weeks ago like that where the police came out when they were called, they talked to the folks that had rented it, they knew there was a lot of folks inside.

Uh, they left and within half an hour it was back to a bit of a ruckus party and they had to come back out a second time all trying to do it.

But with that trespass letter, that provides them a real strong tool to be able to get at getting those people out of there that are not part of that overnight group and thus stopping whatever um situation is causing um causing the ruckus with the neighbors and causing an incident with the neighbors.

What is the best way for residents to share concerns about short-term rentals uh in their neighborhoods?

So the easiest way is going to be uh through a 311 complaint, because uh department of neighborhoods that runs 311, their staff have expertise to know where different complaints should go, and they would send it to us and uh well they would send it to our licensing division, and then the then our our staff can do that.

Just using 311 just makes a nice common place that everybody knows where they can go to to make a complaint on anything and know that it's gonna get to the right department and the right division and get addressed.

And then finally, as you as you and your team continue to work through this with council, um, what feedback are you still looking for from residents, owners, um, and departments, other departments?

I think most items that we talked about that I talked about here today.

I'd love to get feedback, ways to make it better.

Um, like I said, we're not we're not under any illusion that what we put up there was perfect.

Um, but we do think that's a a good opening.

And then if there's other issues that neighbors want that they think they could should be addressed, um, you know, we are we're willing to sit down and talk about it and work through it and figure out um, you know, is it something that we can accomplish uh and does it make the the situation better?

All right, thank you, Vice Chair Ross.

Thank you, Chair.

Just a couple questions or a few questions, let me say a few questions.

Um you talked about graduated fines for noncompliance.

Has the department considered fines based on the severity of offenses that are happening at the property?

Um we haven't.

Okay.

Um, but again, you know, we're we're more than happy to talk through that more deeply to try to figure out what's what is worse than another what offense is worse than others uh that we really want to discourage.

I'm just thinking about like your regular, you know, having folks there without applying, right, or registering versus consistent calls for service for felony crimes of violence.

So you would think that that may be some different fines considered for kind of difference to the code, yeah.

Yes.

Awesome.

And then can you talk a little bit about the compliance process?

I know we had one incident that we worked through as a department where um a particular STR owner was working through the compliance process of getting registered, but had people already um on the platform and inside of the unit.

Um can you just talk a little bit about how you work with property owners and what that looks like and what level of notification you give to an STR owner prior to that C syntes letter?

Sure.

We um as soon as staff hears about a um a unit that is uh being used as a short-term rental that may not be be registered, they will go to uh the different platforms, the the big one of uh short uh uh uh um Airbnb, thank you.

The Airbnb has actually been a good partner with us.

We are actually able to take postings down.

Uh then the owner gets uh an email from Airbnb saying your posting was taken down by the city for non-compliance, you need to reach out to them.

Once a um, you know, someone reaches out to our staff, our whole goal is just to get them to comply with city code.

We prefer not to have to go into the fines uh at all, but some just choose not to not to want to uh comply and we would have to go with that.

But as far as long as they're making progress towards getting their packet to us and getting registered, we're gonna want to be well, we're gonna want to be um you know cooperative and not put a fine on somebody.

But if they stop showing progress, they stop talking with us, or they just keep doing what they're doing, then uh having a fine the ability to find them, uh we would move forward with that, and then that starts uh you know that process of if they continue to do that, we're gonna jump that that fine up even more.

Um so it's not necessarily removing an individual that's already staying in the unit, but it is the threat of fines for non-compliance.

Correct.

And are these daily fines that are contemplated or uh we just we have we had been thinking about one time, you know, it's a very you know, you know uh the noise ordinance has us do you know graduated fines uh up from I think 50 bucks to like a thousand uh pretty quickly, and so we could do a 50 250, 500 type of thing, and you know, I've uh I've got to make sure that it uh as you know that it's reasonable to find, but at the same time we want it to be enough of a deterrent to dissuade them from uh from ignoring us.

Sure, thank you.

Um are we working on a complaint-based type of process for noncompliance or are there proactive checks to ensure that we don't have unregistered STRs?

Right now, staff does spend time uh going through uh going through the different platforms to make sure that everything's registered.

Uh we have been talking talking with the platforms to try to figure out a better um system if there is one.

I'd like to see us um get an email every time they get a new um reg or new unit online and thus we can automatically go change it'll be a little bit more proactive than reactive, but we also do have the neighbors are more than happy to call um 311 to complain about some of their some of these uh short-term rentals and then we follow up with them very quickly.

I certainly like the idea of of thinking about how systems can talk to one another such that we get notification when a an a new STR comes on.

Um so I appreciate you looking into that as a department.

Half step off, but it's kind of similar.

Are you our law enforcement systems speaking to the systems that we you're using over in licensing?

So say there is a a call for service or a six five uh four five four five report for criminal activity.

How do uh the various departments talk to one another about that, or is that mainly just based on notification?

Well, uh police does do have access to our database of what is a registered um uh short-term rental.

Um and they do use that uh on occasion, uh, but I'm not sure that there's it could be used more, but I do know they also have a lot of things that they are can they're having to consider and deal with out in the field.

Generally speaking, we do um find out about the calls for service after the fact, and that we can still go back to that owner and talk about those a problem, how we how are you planning on addressing it, uh that those types of issues to try to get them again to do something.

Some of them have gone to cameras uh in their at least on the out exterior of their building, so they can see exactly who and what's going on at their short-term rental.

Sure.

Thank you.

I just think I I know that there's a lot of conversation around technology uplifts, particularly with the division, and I'm wondering if it makes sense to just include your systems as a part of that conversation if there is a way that systems can better speak to one another in that.

Definitely.

We want to make it as easy as possible without usernames or or um you know uh passwords, because that's just more hassle for the officer on the street.

So thank you.

No further questions from me.

Council Mr.

White.

Thank you.

Uh Tony, always good to see you.

Thank you for going through the overview as well as thank you, Dr.

Prewit.

I was not here at the previous hearing, so it was helpful to kind of get the recap.

Um you answered, or we started to answer one of the questions that I have, which was around how are we defining immediate neighbor?

Um, and I think you mentioned, hey, you know, I'd be open to 125 feet from that location.

Um, but doesn't make sense, right?

125 feet for the houses on the same street or in the same cul-de-sac.

I the house behind me, two houses behind me could be, you know, I guess 125 feet.

Are they also being notified?

If you're not going to be able to do that, are the uh notification we use that includes the 125.

It's 125 feet from the parcel line in all directions.

So whether it's somebody in the back, somebody across the street, if they're within that 125.

Now that's not a huge distance.

That could literally mean the immediate neighbors right around them, but they're also gonna be the ones that are going to have the most impact if the short-term rental is not being used properly.

Can I ask about the area commission why they would be a component of it as well?

And like how is that work in the case?

I think it was that they don't exist.

Definitely.

I think the area commission um, because a lot of times those folks are known entities in their neighborhoods and people call them and complain to them or say you're you're working for the city, how can you help us make this work?

So again, nothing's in concrete right now.

More than happy to continue to talk through that.

So as it relates to like nuisance uh complaints that folks are hearing.

I think one of the things that was mentioned are there are neighbors who just do not like Airbnbs or do not like the property owner, and so they are the ones making the complaints.

Do you envision kind of an appeals process, especially if we're increasing the fines gradually over time?

Most definitely with whatever penalties we have, there will be an appeal process uh so that because people have the g have the right to time in in court and be heard.

So uh we'll try to solve it ourselves, but they always have that right.

We'll make sure that that follows uh in any any changes in the language with the in the code language that we do.

Appreciate that.

Uh my other question was really around the occupancy limits, which I understand trying to get an accurate head count based on bedrooms.

I was recently staying in a short-term rental when I took a family trip.

Most of the the rooms were either king or queen king or queen size beds in the room, but other rooms had like bunk beds, triple bunk beds, or twin over a queen.

Now, I personally don't want to stay in a room like that, but others do.

Does it make more sense to tie it to the number of beds within the unit instead of the actual number of bedrooms?

Beds and couches and fillings, that type of thing.

You know, we kind of work off of that right now, but kind of some of the challenges are you know, you in some places they well, and we don't have an inspection uh right now, so this is this is more hypothetical, but um, you know, I can envision where somebody's gonna put a you know put a twin-size two twins in a room and um have us come look at it, and then when they l when our staff leaves, or you know, all of a sudden they're both bunk beds all of a sudden.

So now instead of two, you got four people.

Um it's it is a challenge to figure out what size or what not what is the maximum occupancy uh for these.

And another piece, you know, another avenue that we've started to explore is working through the county auditor's website.

So whatever is the county county auditor has on there for number of bedrooms in a building or maybe square footage to have something like that.

I know that you know, I just find myself our family up for vacation, and they want to know how many people are gonna be in the in the rental that I'm using, and you know, put three adults and one kid under 17.

And so perhaps that's something that we can start to maybe work with the with the platforms to require.

They may already have it, I which I suspect they do, and thus that gives us that that oh what I would term the overnight occupancy.

So if there's supposed to be four people there that are staying overnight, and there are 10 people in the place causing ruckus.

Well, six of them the police can figure out six of them need to go because they're not part of that original group that's supposed to be renting it.

Appreciate that.

Um and I don't know if this is a question for Dr.

Pruitt or for Tony, either one can jump in.

I saw one of the complaints was related to trash, obviously, refuse.

That's my world.

So I'm just curious.

I don't think I've seen any changes to the amendment that go to addressing trash or just hopefully someone can fill me in on like what the complaint was.

Is it just that short-term rentals may cross refuse pickup times, and so trash could be sitting out there for a week, just trying to get a sense of the problem.

I I was uh from with having code enforcement under under us, I would suspect that it's the short-term rentals that are being used by people that just really don't respect the neighborhood.

They're there to party, they're there to have a good time.

They're just leaving trash.

And so they're just leaving trash.

And at that point, you know, hopefully people will call 311, it'll get routed over to our code enforcement within 48 hours.

Our code enforcement officers will be out there, take a look, and if they need to write a violation, they will, and then uh hopefully the the owner, the owner cleans it up.

Yeah, so I mean, uh another way in which we might be able to address this is as folks are registering for as a short-term rental of just a listing of private haulers, because they're smaller haulers who would go out to a short-term rental to pick up trash to address that.

But I hear you from that perspective.

If people don't live there, they are willing to do any and everything with their trash, sadly.

So appreciate it.

That's it from me, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Um just another question.

One of the things that we found challenging with the police was was the fact that the motels were in with the short-term rentals.

Will pulling the code out automatically trigger that to be separate, or was is that still something that we have to know?

Our goal is to have short-term rentals in their own their own chapter so that we're not confused with that that language work back and forth with the hotel motel.

So it would be totally separate.

Yeah, that's what I figured as much.

I think that that makes a lot of sense.

I need all the help I can get.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, thank you.

Um, Deputy Director Celebrities.

It's clear that the department's been taking the work seriously and thinking carefully about how to modernize our our approach.

Um, I appreciate the proposals and and not just about adding restrictions, just what could we do to make this more efficient for the city?

So it seems like it'll be a more workable system and one that's clear for residents and and staff.

So I'm gonna move now to public speakers and um have the uh opportunity for public comment.

Um we have added um additional speakers today, so um that just signed up.

So I'll invite each of you to the lectern to share your marks for up to three minutes.

Um please state your name for the record, and uh we will move on to the next person after that.

So I'm gonna read the ones that are coming.

I'll give you the who's on deck and who who's next.

So first is Nat Shepherd, and then we'll have Jeff Smith after that.

Welcome to council.

Again, please state your name and hi, my name's Nat Shepard.

Um thank you for the work that you've done since December.

It's great to see this progress.

Thank you, Tony, for everything your department's done.

Um I'm I've seen a lot of things as an operator that I like, and I think are gonna move the city in the right direction.

Um I'd like to make a couple of points as this moves forward into actually writing the legislation.

Thank you.

Um on the platform, on having the platforms collect and remit the tax.

This really seems like a no-brainer.

Um Airbnb and Verbo are already doing this in a lot of other major cities.

They have the technology.

It seems like it should be as easy as flipping a switch for them.

And I think there are two benefits of that.

The first is that the city is likely missing out on tax revenue from non-compliant operators.

The second is that if the city can get those platforms to provide a report showing the address or the license number and the amount of monthly tax that's associated to that property, it gives you a very easy way to find people who just made up a fake license number and typed it in.

So it also you know feeds back and can enforce compliance.

So I I would recommend doing that.

Um thank you for the work on online license renewals.

I think that's a huge step in the right direction for compliant operators to be able to do that more easily.

I know there's been quite a backlog at the license division with renewals, and I have some clients that are waiting on some.

Um Tony, you you mentioned fines, and I just want to provide a quick comment on that.

Um the way that these platforms work now, if I want to put a house up for rent, I can make up a license number.

It just has to follow the same character format as the city license numbers.

I I don't think that's a secret to anyone.

Uh and I could rent it this weekend for a lot more than 250 dollars.

So I would encourage you as you think about a fine structure to uh make that a more severe consequence for someone who's listing a new property and doesn't have a license yet.

Um let's see.

Uh a new concept somewhat uh Tony put up a chart that shows the number of licenses that the city has issued, and a lot of those, the vast majority are non-owner occupied.

There are some that are owner occupied.

I would encourage at the licensing or at the renewal process to capture some more information about the distinct types of licenses that are being issued.

For example, in under uh an owner-occupied property, that could be an owner who lives in that house and is renting out a bedroom, or it could be an owner who rents that entire house while they're gone.

It's not clear which it is, so I would just encourage building that out to understand what types of operators we really have.

Um, you know, a similar one is like I I manage a rental that's above my parents' garage for them.

They live on that same parcel.

If there ever were to be an issue, they're gonna be the first ones that notice it.

So it has a license as a non-owner occupied property, but they're 20 feet away.

Uh and I'd like to make one more point if I if that's all right.

Thank you.

Um this is more of a question.

I I know we've been talking about this notification notification requirement to neighbors, and as an operator, I I would like for neighbors to know how to contact me if they need to contact me if there's an issue with that property.

Um my question is with with the rental registry ordinance that the council approved yesterday.

Is there an opportunity for short-term rental licensing information to just flow directly into that registry?

And then neighbors could look up a contact person that way.

I'm just I'm I would encourage finding a an efficient and electronic way to do this and creating a paper notification requirement to neighbors.

Seems challenging and hard to enforce.

Certainly something we should explore.

Yeah, and then the same department would would operate kind of both.

The division of building and zoning services has the rental registry as well as STRs.

So I think it could be something for the department to explore.

You want to comment on that?

Sure.

With with the number of registries uh that we do have, and other than the short-term rentals, our goal is not to have a duplicative um system there for somebody.

So if it's a short-term rental, um, I'm gonna go out on a limb because I would I haven't read the rental registry, but I don't believe that they're gonna have to run it register for both.

But if they do, it's one system, our our computer system is one entity, so we can figure out how we can make it a one-time thing, and thus they don't have to duplicate their efforts.

Also, could you speak to the um tax remittance?

That issue.

Or do you or do you know?

I mean, I I know, but do you know?

I am unfamiliar.

Okay.

One of the challenges that we had was with the auditor and their system.

So don't trust me, we are we want to work towards that because it makes a whole lot of sense in many ways, just like you outlined.

Um, but we just got some challenges technologically with the auditor's office, so we'll continue to work work with them to try to rectify that problem.

So thank you.

Thank you for the time.

Appreciate it.

Uh next we have um Jeff Smith and then David Swick Swickley, if I say that right, sorry if I didn't.

Thank you, council members, for holding this here and working with us to improve the quality of life in the city.

My name is Jeff Smith, and I represent local short-term term hosts as a volunteer community manager for Airbnb.

And we also have an informal local group of local hosts called the Columbus Host Alliance.

I'm also past president of the Short North Civic Association, so I've been very engaged in the community.

Um looks like we've had a good turnout of hosts.

We didn't really publicize it, but I think the licensing division sent out emails, so it's nice to see people here.

I think it's important to keep things in perspective as we consider the new legislation.

Um the existing legislation has been dealing with problems fairly successfully, and I feel those have been reduced quite a bit.

Also, Airbnb has changed a lot over the last few years.

They've cracked down tremendously on parties and have a strong program in place.

And I think you mentioned the portal where not only the city can look things up, but residents can complain through Airbnb there.

So I think that's there's been a major decrease in problems over the last few years that we should recognize.

And also hosts work very hard not to have problems.

They have a significant investment in their property.

The last thing they want is a party.

Uh and there are some problem hosts, we know that.

There's also problem landlords and there's problem hotels, and I suspect the problem short-term rental hosts are less of an issue overall than the landlords and hotels.

So while there's problems, and I'm glad we're addressing it, it's not a blight on the city, as some neighbors may have you think.

That tenant running next to you could be there for a year, two years, or if you have a bad neighbor move in, they could be there for many years.

So it's a it corrects itself when there is a problem.

And uh I guess the problem guess doesn't mean it's a problem property owner.

I I appreciate streamlining the permit process, that's very important.

Having to go down to Groves Road is uh cumbersome, having to get fingerprinted every year when those clearly don't change is a problem.

And uh we do appreciate all the work Latasha does down there.

She does an amazing job, though I think this time of year she's always backlogged.

Uh tax collecting, I know there's issues at some point the city's gonna have to say we just want the money and the check.

Uh but I also encourage you to force the platforms to provide some data to the city.

I think they hide behind federal privacy laws that aren't a hundred percent accurate.

So providing some basic information, either be with a tax remittance as not suggested, or just an address of this thing without personal identifying information would be helpful.

I'm gonna make one more point.

Uh the neighbor notification process, I think sounds good on paper, but I think it's kind of worthless personally.

Uh my personal house, there's 50 apartment units in three adjacent buildings.

They're secure buildings.

I couldn't send a letter to those residents if I wanted to.

I I don't know their addresses.

I don't know the numbering scheme of the apartments and sending to a tenant once, they're gone in a year.

If I send it to Mark Wood, who owns the building, he's he's not doing anything with that.

So I think using the rental registry, 311, sending to the SDR address at licensing, those are all very effective ways of dealing with problems that already exist.

So I don't know that it solves the problem.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Jeff.

Appreciate you coming down.

Next is David Silwickley, and Willie Jones is after that.

This is David here.

All right, we'll move on.

Let the record reflect that David is not here.

Willie Jones is next, and then we have Susan Summerfield.

Summerfeld.

Welcome to council.

Please state your name.

You have three minutes.

How are you doing?

My name's Willie Jones.

I'm on short-term rentals here in Columbus area.

And um the problem I've had is trying to keep unruly guests in um negative situations out of my property.

Um this January at a situation where a group of kids rented through verbo, and um it was supposed to be eight girls, and um on the second day I noticed a bunch of young gentlemen showing up.

So they were clearly in violation of what the platform agreement stated, and uh so I called police and the police came out and pretty much told me that there was nothing it could do to get these people out of my home.

So um I you know stood there and had a conversation with these gods for several minutes and just you know, once again, ask like, so there's nothing I can do to get these people out of my home just because I'm trying to avoid you know, just disturbing the neighbors, but a violent situation in general, and I just felt something on them right.

And they told me there was nothing they could do that was a civil matter.

And so um an hour later, I heard a loud boom, and um hell broke loose.

There was a shootout, and uh it was 47 bullet holes through my property.

A girl was shot in a house, and so I called a cops again, they come back this time, and you know everybody ran and left the property by that time.

And so I just feel like it's ridiculous that there's not some kind of way we don't have some kind of leverage to get these people out at home.

It's not like uh you know there's some tenant that's they're rented for long term to some landlord tenant situation going on.

You're literally lodging at the house like you have that BHC being licensed to stay there for 24 hours, and so if we want to cancel that reservation at will, we should have the authority to do so.

And so I don't know if you guys, if that's something that you guys are working on, but we'll we'll have a conversation.

You know, the financial beneficial benefits of the whole situation, I care about my neighbors, and so I try to do the best I can do to accommodate my neighbors as well in the process of all this.

May I ask a question?

Do you have uh trespass trespass authorization forms on file with the division of police for each of your jumping?

That's something that I just put into place uh this February.

Okay.

Hopefully that having that will help.

Generally speaking, when you have that trespass authorization form, then that gives a police officer the ability to address those issues.

Yes, actually, with or without you, you're giving them kind of uh approval to not have to contact you to address whatever issues are happening on your property, but certainly when you have reached out, it also helps them to be able to take that enforcement action in the event you need um need them to.

I I think we should still maybe have further conversation with the division.

Um, but the reality is if they can easily prove that it's a short-term rental versus some sort of landlord tenant situation, that will change their ability to um enforce right away.

And then having that authorization form generally helps.

So hopefully you implementing that will be helpful in the future.

But if you continue to have issues, please reach out to us and we will have that conversation with the division.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate your coming down today.

Next is Susan Sommerfeld and then Michael Shibko.

Welcome to council.

Yeah, state names.

Thank you.

You have three minutes.

Thank you for having me.

Um I have lots of good ideas today.

I like what I'm hearing.

I'm, I guess maybe the only resident who's here to speak.

I just had a couple of things.

Um the checklist with licensing.

I don't know if there's anything addressing parking.

Um I live in the short north and it's mostly parking in the alleys, parking around.

Lots of the um short-term rental owners have signage that says, you know, that this is the parking spot or this is where you should be.

Lots of them don't.

And so people kind of park willy-nilly.

So I don't know whether you can put that on the license form.

And you know, do you have signage?

Have you thought about this?

Um the other issue is on occupancy.

I don't know what to do about that either.

Um short of spying on them because there's just not a lot of ways to really control that.

Um, but maybe if there's a house with more than three bedrooms, if it's there's a lot of large houses, they put beds in every corner.

And so what's happening is that you're ending up with a house that sleeps as many people as a bed and breakfast.

And so what's the difference there?

You know, it's a single house, it's not like you said, like many units in a building, but they're sleeping a lot of people.

So I don't know whether you push that to hotel motel, you know, if they have too many, if they have how many bedrooms they have in the house or what you do, but uh something.

Um the other issue is kind of quality of life.

I don't know what to do about this either.

But the exterior maintenance, it goes along with garbage.

The exterior maintenance is just horrible.

They don't in a lot of cases don't do anything on the outside because they don't have to.

Now, the ones that do do something, that's great.

We love it.

I mean, I'm not opposed to Airbnbs, I stay in them myself.

But some if the people are bad, they seem to be really bad.

And it's just a disaster outside, and there really isn't any complaint I can make.

You know, it's not specifically so that's I don't know what to do about that, but that's something that I would like to see change somehow.

I just one of your points I want to I want to help you out to address it.

Just because um a house may be designated as a short-term rental, does not mean that that property owner does not have to maintain that piece of property up to code.

So if you are seeing situations where a home is falling apart, where there are code violations, where there are maintenance issues, you actually can still report those through the rec regular mechanisms that we have.

So calling 311, reporting it to code enforcement, and it will be handled in any in a normal way, just like any other property owner.

Um, and also if it is a repeat offender, there is still the court process that works just the same as any other property owner that has a long-term resident or tenant in it.

So I do want to encourage you to continue to use that mechanism.

And if you're not getting a response from 311 or having issues getting responses, you can always escalate that to either of our offices and or to the city attorney's office, and they will work with code enforcement to get someone out there to get it addressed.

Well, in normal situations, I think that would work, but in the situation in particular with me, the commission has allowed this to happen.

And so they're not forcing them to do anything about it.

In fact, they've let him go ahead and they've kind of cut a deal with him.

So it's hopefully the commission actually doesn't have any legal authority to allow anything.

So if the commission is allowing it, please escalate that so that it gets to the people that have the ability to address it.

That's helpful.

Enforcing when we need to enforce also helps in in kind of reducing the stigma, particularly for STR operators that are trying to do the right thing.

So please escalate those issues so we can try to address them.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

And again, I've a lot of good things.

I'm happy about a lot of this.

Thank you.

We thank you for coming down representing your views.

Michael Shibko and then Ryan McFadden.

Welcome to council.

So please state your name and you have three minutes.

Hello.

Um, my name is Michael Shibko.

I have been an Airbnb host uh about seven years now.

And I think Tony, you kind of touched on it.

It's um issue with combining listings and to one.

Um I have a duplex that I've like I said, I've had on Airbnb for seven years.

And um I have uh listing that allows a group to book both sides of the duplex, then I can I can market to bigger groups um by doing so.

Uh however, these uh code requirements, I'm not um allowed to do that.

There's an issue with the the six bedroom or there's a five bedroom max.

Um, and I don't know, it just seems kind of silly to me.

Um, if a group can book each one individually, it just kind of makes everything easy easier under one booking.

So that's my main issue.

I'm not asking for changing an occupancy or anything like that.

Um just would like to kind of streamline this process and um hopefully get the code change to allow at least uh duplex owners to combine their listings into one.

Is are you done?

That's well, I was gonna ask Deputy Director if you had any comments about this in particular.

Um I don't I'm not familiar with his his uh units.

Um, but we have had we do have others that market to groups, um, and unfortunately, they the their marketing makes it sound like it's a giant party house.

Uh the the one that's on West Forth is has regularly has 20 to 25 people among their four units, and their neighbors are constantly having challenges with both parking noise and so forth, and and that's the the balancing act that we're going through.

Trying to figure out you've got you know good owners like yourself that marketing to it and are you know good players in the neighborhood, then we've got others that just refuse to take ownership of the problems they're causing.

Right.

So we could I feel like if you have a good track record.

Um I don't I don't see why I would be punished for other hosts that aren't necessarily of um tentative as I am.

Um like as mentioned before, nobody wants a party at my property less than me.

Or you know, so um yeah, maybe there if there's some sort of violation, then you would not be allowed to do that.

But um we'll certainly we appreciate you bringing it forward, and we'll certainly talk about it, that's for sure.

Great, thank you.

Yeah, thank you for coming down.

Uh Ryan McFadden and then Christoph Schiller.

Afternoon, I'm Ryan McFadden.

Thank you for the time and all the work you guys have been doing on this.

And I'm a gym owner, so excuse my casual attire here, came straight from uh training clients at the gym.

Um resident, owner of a gym in Italian village, so very much care about the neighborhoods there.

And uh I am an owner, a host, uh, I'm also a licensed realtor, and I help folks identify and invest in these properties too, and and figure out how to run them to be five-star establishments where the neighbors are going to be very happy, they're going to be clean and well maintained, they're going to find vendors for refuse and for all these things to be run in a very responsible manner.

Um I would echo I think almost everything that Nat said earlier.

So I think there's a lot of really incredible responsible ideas that you guys are working on right now that uh I would agree with and support.

Um I would note, I think there's probably a lot of nuance to Tony's points on the occupancy issue there.

I've talked to some uh hosts in other markets somewhere like a Panama City Beach, for instance, their county has a 150 square foot like per person type of an occupancy there.

So uh that's you know just an example of another metric, or uh it you know, I've stayed in a lot of short-term rentals like you've mentioned, or one of mine currently is a four-bedroom, so we have the four times three twelve-person occupancy, and I've got uh three kings, a queen over queen bunk, and then a couch, and it's it's not being used at the party house.

My neighbors love it, it's five-star.

Um, so it's like you know, we're not trying to cram as many beds as possible in there, but I do think there are still very safe and functional uses that are around the existing occupancy.

So I'd be very careful or concerned with adjusting that too much because I, for instance, have taken on mortgage debt or spent a lot of investment to make that property fit that particular model and uh and advising others to make investments and do so around these models that are very predictable currently.

So changes to those, especially if you already have a property, perhaps making it grandfather to some degree if there were going to be significant changes to occupancy regulations, I think would be something worth considering.

Um as far as the uh notification of the neighbors, uh, I think Matt's idea with the registry would be phenomenal because I do think uh sort of a paper notification would be very challenging, and we seems like we have the systems in place where we could really leverage this and uh perhaps lean more into the education of the public of these these resources and things are available because again, like the previous gentleman mentioned and the gentleman prior to him.

The the party situation with the gunshots is like our worst nightmare as hosts and property owners like we don't want anyone to be hurt, we don't want our properties damaged, we don't want the neighborhood to be at risk.

Um we want to know these things.

We want to be notified if there's a code issue or anything.

I mean, I'm personally at my property on a near-daily basis uh to make sure it's being maintained well, but if someone has a lot of properties and maybe they do still very much care, but they're a little bit overwhelmed.

Like we want to be proactively notified that things are going on.

We want to fix the issues and take care of the issues.

Um I think that that's you know something that we we really want to lean into as responsible hosts and owners and make sure that that's appreciated in the process and and very much emphasize the sort of the bad apples in the situation, too.

Um question about the the overnight guests versus the um the non-overnight guests.

I just don't know if there's a precedent in place for just a regular residential property for that currently.

I'm just thinking of like an Ohio State football gathering where you have a home that sleeps 10 people and you might have 20 or 30 people there during the afternoon who are being mature and responsible.

Um, but then they would potentially technically be in violation of some new standard there.

So I'm just curious about what that might look like or being considered going forward.

Um with the registration uh fees, the online system sounds phenomenal as well.

One nuance there that I think would be very helpful if you do have multiple units or multiple properties, a way to perhaps prorate uh the registration timeline uh and align their renewal dates just so that you don't have to go down to the office or even go online several different times for different units to have to do that.

If you could just align them to one date, it would probably help with compliance and I think make it much easier for everybody involved.

Um just a really clean, clear understanding of the trespass uh or no trespass framework too, because it sounds very beneficial on its face to me, um, especially the gentleman's nightmare scenario I heard there.

If we had the ability, like you know, I I have cameras all around the exterior of my property, I have occupancy sensors, I have noise monitors, I have all these things.

And if I suspect something is not going so well there, and I want to direct law enforcement there, I kind of want to understand what what can they do?

Like, can they uh to the gentleman's point?

Can they remove them if they are not apparently doing anything illegal, even if they are in violation of their their guest rules or their their occupancy.

So uh thank you again for your time.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate the comments this evening or this afternoon.

Um next, we have Christoph Schiller and then Jeremiah Logier.

Um thank you very much for uh holding this meeting.

My name is Christopher Schiller.

I am here as a resident of um Harrison West, so not just one resident, we have multiple residents here.

I want to um direct your attention to an issue I think that hasn't gotten enough air and enough attention today, and that is the use of quote-unquote short-term rentals um to get around any kind of regulation that regular hotels and Airbnb uh regular hotels and uh and motels and bed and breakfasts have to satisfy.

Let me give you an example.

I live in Harrison West across the street from a property that is four um sort of townhouse units next to each other.

Each one of those townhouse units is listed as a short-term rental on uh on a on a booking website, advertising up to 12 guests in each of those.

So at any given time, uh there are up to 50 people staying there, and that does not include any of the guests that come there.

Um this is not just a nuisance issue.

Nearly every weekend at 2 to 3 a.m., almost you can set the clock to it.

Groups of cars start showing up, and large parties break out at the time when clubs and bars and other places close.

It is absolutely predictable at this point.

This happens every weekend.

We have to call law enforcement sometimes.

They show up, the people disperse, and there's nothing to be done for uh for law enforcement there.

It goes further than that.

Um, a couple of months ago, there was a critical situation where I think someone's trying to break in.

I'm not sure what the details were.

We were watching this from across the street at 2 30 a.m.

Someone was being pulled out of there in uh in in hancuffs, someone else was taken away in EMT, and there were seven or eight cruisers on the intersection blocking this off.

The same thing happened again a couple of weeks ago.

Um, this is also not solved by Airbnb taking care of itself over time.

This property is so bad that Airbnb and Verbo do not not allow this property to operate on their platform anymore.

Instead, they have their own platform, they have their own website, you can book it through their own website, and there's no uh Airbnb cleans itself type of uh solution to this.

It's also not true that this problem takes care of itself over time, and the bad short-term neighbor is gone versus the the bad uh the good one or the the bad long-term neighbor will be there forever.

Every weekend, these party groups come back.

This does not take care of itself at all.

Um and so this is operating as a de facto hotel.

And do people know this?

If you go to Google Maps and you pull up this property, it is listed as a hotel on Google Maps.

If you turn on your TV, you see YouTube ads where the operator of this property is literally advertising this.

I have the screenshots, um, to the public as a party hotel in the city.

There's absolutely nothing that we can do about this, and it goes around every single regulation and requirement you would have in place for a comparable 50 people hotel, right?

And this is the 50 people who are staying there, because that's the capacity of the place, not including all the party guests, not including the people who have altercations in the streets, fighting, shooting every single weekend.

And this is a family neighborhood where all the people around us have been here for 20, 30 years.

We're all thinking about moving away.

You want us all to move away and sell our houses and and all of those things and make the neighborhood disintegrate and completely fall apart as a result of that?

I don't think so.

And so please consider putting a stop to this.

Um, this is absolutely unbearable for the neighborhood and a scourge on our city.

Thank you.

Can you stay?

Can you stay for a second?

I just want to ask the department.

Are you aware of this particular is this on West Forth Forth and Harrison?

Yes.

Yes, we are.

This is the one you were just mentioning.

And by the way, this operator has multiple properties all around the city.

If you go to the website, this is not the only place they operate.

They have 20 or 30 other properties all around the city.

They're not an Airbnb anymore because Airbnb kicked them out.

So it will not clean itself.

They just run their own website.

Deputy Director.

Could you talk about how you're addressing this?

Because this has been ongoing and ongoing and ongoing.

And so ongoing and ongoing is exactly we want to know like what action is being taken in them.

What do we need to do to make sure that these people are not allowed to operate in the city?

Definitely.

I'm gonna let Wendy Boots, our deputy director, also handle it.

Uh she's a little bit more familiar with the details of this situation, even though it's up the street from my house.

Uh well, in fact, sorry.

Um, in fact, um, I was speaking with Latasha today, and we intend to have a conversation with this owner um to determine what it is exactly he is doing about renting to uh to whoever he's renting to that is causing the problems.

Um we have told him before that he may not um list it as um you know four uh I mean they have to be listed as separate units because the code is limited to five guest rooms per short-term rental.

That has to do with what the state code lists for hotels are six guest rooms or more.

Um so yes, I realize that they and and again the four of them are connected to each other.

I understand, and that's the same issue with a duplex.

Um be a good thing, shouldn't exist.

Well, it's um something that we are looking into, unfortunately.

That's all I can say at the moment.

They do hold a license though?

They have four licenses for that building.

So if there's continual violations, why are we not revoking that license?

We we are looking into into that at the time at this time.

And parts of the code make it a little bit challenging, and that's part of the reason why you know us when we go to rewrite this and make changes that were very specific with how we can dress these things, because right now it's a little a little vague as to where our authority is.

It's not that we don't want to do something we're trying to get the compliance on the front end.

It is obviously not working, and so we are trying to take the next step.

But even if we file a you know court case with it, the court's gonna take you know a number of weeks, if not months, to get to it, and it's probably going to be a some sort of status conference as opposed to in front of the the judge.

Let me let me let me try to split this.

I think there's the STR issue, which it sounds like is a more of a long-term fix through the code changes and just understanding what controls we need to have in place.

Then there's the nuisance activity issue, which we are we should already have an infrastructure to try to address that.

I would just encourage when you have this meeting with the property owner to also include the city attorney's office in that meeting because if there are actual things that we can address now, we should probably be doing that.

That'll also probably give you a little more leverage when you're having the conversation with the property owner.

Because if I hear I hear parties, I hear noise, I hear shootings, those are all things that will implicate the nuisance code, regardless of whether or not it's a short-term rental or a permanent residence.

So I just I would offer that as I would just actually know.

I'm requesting that you do that so that we can try to take care of this issue as as quickly as possible.

I believe you sent a notice last week.

Is that correct?

To this property owner.

But that had been asked for for a while.

So I mean we'll we'll be on this and we'll make sure that we address these issues so that it is easier for our side to handle it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's another time to do something bad.

And then we're all sitting here crying.

And then finally, Jeremiah Lelogier.

Good afternoon, council members.

Uh my name is my name is Jeremiah Logier.

And just stand up.

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

Um yeah, this is this has been expressed a couple times already, but I just wanted to speak a little bit to the maximum bedroom size limitation of five bedrooms.

I understand the sentiment behind it.

I think it's to limit um large parties, which I mean, as a host, this has been said already, but nobody wants to party um at their property.

And um, in in this specific case, we have a um we have uh Victorian mansion off Neil that's a nine bedroom.

And so of course, this this is not a modern bill, this is uh preexisting home, single family.

And um, you know, because of this limitation, we're not able to rent it as a single family home.

Um so we we have it split in like a basement, and there's a two bedrooms with egress windows and closets and outlets in each bedroom.

And um there's additional bedrooms above.

Um but the majority of our clientele is 80% is uh generational family gathering where grandparents, children, grandchildren come and stay.

Um they're coming in for weddings, conventions, um just traveling to Columbus for general tourism too.

Um this house is actually featured um at the CMH airport as you fly in.

And so we just want to kind of like push that a little bit.

I mean, we're being featured, and you know, we just want to be able to operate fairly um and host people that are abiding citizens.

Um we're finding that um people there's an there is a need beyond just hotels where families traveling in large parties like business retreats, multi-generational stays like this.

Um they want shared housing space, and you can't get that at a hotel.

So, yeah, I think that about concludes concludes my time.

Thank you very much.

I mean, we you you have our commitment that we'll try to work through some of these issues that you know to parse out the ones that you know are operating properly, it's really to avoid the other problems like on fourth and and that sort of thing.

So yeah, um we'll we'll see what we can do.

You know, I don't know yet what that might be, but we'll figure we'll try to figure that out there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming down, appreciate it.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Well, thank you, all of you for being here uh for the public com comments.

With that, I would like to do you have any uh I want to see if my colleagues have any comments before we close out.

All right.

So I would like to close by thanking our presenters today, our department partners and everyone who participated in today's hearing.

Short-term rentals bring value, flexibility, and economic activity to our city, but we also owe residents a system that responds when properties become disruptive, disruptive or unsafe.

Most operators are following the rules and trying to do the right thing.

Our job is to make sure the code reflects that reality, that reality while given the city stronger tools to address the exceptions.

Today was about taking that fresh look, hearing what needs to be updated, what needs to be streamlined, and what needs to be enforced more effectively.

We will continue reviewing testimony and feedback as we work toward possible legislation in the in the next couple of months.

Thank you to my colleagues, Councilmember Ross and Whitech, um, Dr.

Tanisha Pruitt, my team, including Pedro Mejia, um our analyst, Miss Prior, Nancy Prior Solid.