All right, good evening, everybody.

I will call to order the meeting of the July 13th, 2026 meeting of the housing, planning and development committee.

First order of business, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the July 6, 2026 HP and D meeting.

Second.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Two items on the agenda.

Um communication from Councilmember Bullock regarding rules for short-term rentals in Lakewood and then a proposed ordinance.

I'm just gonna have a quick couple opening remarks, and I'll turn it over to my colleague.

Um this is something that we've been hearing uh uh some council, I mean I'll speak for myself specifically, have been hearing quite a bit about this.

We know it's an issue.

People are um I think just very I I know justifiably um frustrated um with some of the circumstances of short-term rentals in the in the city, and um we don't currently have the means to regulate that.

Um so that's what we're here to talk about this evening.

Um I'll thank Councilman Bullock in advance for his work on this to this point um and putting together uh the ordinance of debates, and uh and I will say as well for the record, this is something we've been working on as a group um for for quite a while, talking to other communities and and and working with other departments within the city.

Um so that said, I I will turn the um this over to Councilman Bullock to talk through his his thoughts on this issue.

Councilman Bullock.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Um, and I'm interested also in the response and reactions of my colleagues and the administration to the degree that we can get into that tonight.

Um I did notify a couple of members of the public who have been talking uh with me about these issues uh and let them know that tonight's a beginning, not the only certainly discussion here.

Um where to begin.

Um first, Mr.

Chair, you were a co-sponsor last year in a in a proposal that began the discussion.

I um charged ahead with the current draft really just because time was short.

So apologies if I didn't include you in that.

Um it's just you know, getting started is in my view.

And and I'll repeat what I said at the council meeting that to my colleagues and to the administration.

First, I sincerely am looking for collaboration and and feedback and dialogue on this one.

Second, there's a number of choice points, kind of small, medium, and large, available to the city, in my view.

Um what's before you is a starting point that makes some of those choices but not all.

Um major component not currently in this draft that I do want to get to is the um consideration of fees and taxation.

Because right now the way that rental properties are taxed is through property tax and through tenant income tax.

There is no tenant income tax for short-term rentals by definition.

And long, you know, short-term rental properties currently do contribute property taxes, that's true.

But you've got a commercial activity that's most like hotel operations.

And hotel operations have a whole series of fees and taxes that they pay through the county government if they're properly registered and operated in a hotel.

Hotel hotels also have a higher threshold of fire code, health and safety standards, health and safety postings, parking requirements, a bunch of operating uh considerations.

None of those apply here automatically unless the city government applies.

So what we essentially have is either a new definition of a new commercial activity, or we have an a uh uh commercial activity that should fit under an existing city definition, but because of its new features, it hasn't heretofore been clear to the city government that that that it does c fall within certain definitions.

All right.

So what that means is there's a bunch of operational impacts on the surrounding community that aren't currently being captured or fully factored in into our planning, into our cost structure, into our safety uh oversight, and into our housing and building quality uh oversight to a degree.

So some of our housing and building uh uh applies here like anywhere else, largely on the exterior, but perhaps on the interior side, there's there's a question.

So that's a preamble to say the research I've done, including re uh conversations with peer local governments, is in support of our enhanced oversight here because there are many impacts that are not currently being captured by city regulation, city city oversight, city health and safety engagement and city cost um reimbursement, which we might also call fees and taxes.

So I'll pause there because that was already quite a lot.

And then there's more to talk about when it comes to city enforcement and staffing and then design of a legal schema, which this proposal takes one view of, and we certainly should discuss whether this something different is called for.

Thanks, Councilman Bullock.

Uh appreciate that.

And I'll I think in a moment, if there we'll we'll ask you to kind of walk through your uh thought process when you're putting together the uh proposed ordinance.

Um just for the record, I do want to say that before we uh end before I forget that we have already gotten quite quite a bit of online feedback tonight uh for tonight's meeting um and people having concerns about this issue.

Um so it is and I'll say anecdotally myself, I'm certainly getting quite a bit of uh resident feedback about this as well with concerns.

Um and also thank you for um I I do agree the um entire fee side of this is something that's um it's uh entirely appropriate for us to be looking at because we're just basically allowing businesses to run uh without any kind of uh structure for that.

Um so yeah, if you if unless uh anybody else have any questions at this point, or should we do you want to uh let Councilman Bullock dive in?

Uh yeah, I'll um thank you, Chair.

And I'll I'll say that this is um I do think, and we had some discussions with um the law director before the meeting, I do think that we kind of have to decide because I've gotten a lot of um feedback from my constituents as well.

Probably more they want to see some regulatory framework, some want to see it banned, some like um or or strictly regulated uh some would like to see like that it's here in Lakewood, uh, but understand that some regulatory framework is necessary if we continue to allow it in Lakewood.

Um what I will say is that if so I think we have to decide kind of as as a committee and then work with the administration to figure out where we want to file fall on the kind of regulatory framework.

And to Councilman Bullock's point, if you do want to have allow it, but have a pretty detailed regulatory framework that requires a lot of coordination with the administration because that's essentially a full-time employee uh to kind of administer that program.

Uh different communities have done it differently.

Uh so I I recently pulled the City of Cleveland's um short-term rental legislation that they passed a month ago yesterday, um, and it went it became effective on July 1st.