Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
❄️ Today’s weather: Expect snow showers mainly before 1pm, a high of 29, and blustery northwest winds at 9-14 mph increasing to 16-21 mph in the afternoon, with gusts up to 34 mph. There’s an 80% chance of precipitation and potential snow accumulation of less than an inch. Thursday night will be partly cloudy with a low around 22, featuring 16-20 mph northwest winds and gusts as high as 33 mph.
🚨 You need to know
Alexandria leadership has been talking about stricter guidelines for short-term rentals for over a year, but Patch reported the next City Council meeting on Saturday could give the city a better look at what that entails.
The new guidelines would create a permit requirement for the operating of short-term rentals, along with guidelines and a series of standards for denial or revocation of a permit if the property becomes a nuisance.
According to the staff report:
Staff also propose the creation of a Short-Term Residential Rental Permit which would authorize the operation of short-term rentals in any residential dwelling unit and in any zoning district which permits residential dwellings provided the operator can meet occupancy, parking, and fire safety requirements. As part of the permitting process, the operator would be required to notice abutting properties, providing contact information and ways to submit complaints to them and the city. If a short-term rental becomes a nuisance through a track record of code and ordinance violations, the city will have the ability to revoke the permit, an ability which does not currently exist.
The new regulation also creates limits around occupancy.
“Staff propose to limit occupancy to two occupants per bedroom plus two additional occupants at all times, day or night, excluding children 3 years of age and under,” the report said. “As an example, if a short-term rental has two bedrooms, the maximum occupancy would be six people at any time. If the short-term rental contains four or more bedrooms, the maximum occupancy would be 10 at any time.”
The report said no more than 10 occupants would be permitted in any short-term rental, regardless of the number of bedrooms in the unit.
The new regulations also aim to crack down on “party houses”.
“During public outreach, the community voiced concern about ‘party houses’ and the use of short-term rentals for large parties and special events,” the report said. “The maximum occupancy applies to all visitors, not just to overnight visitors, and so it will have the effect of prohibiting large gatherings.”
The report does carve out a specific exception to the 10 guest limit for short-term rental units in commercial, office and mixed-use zones with certain specifications.
The proposal is scheduled for review at the City Council hearing on Saturday, Feb. 22.
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