City Council voted 8-0 Monday night to table an ordinance focused on short-term rentals until its next meeting on Feb. 9. After adopting Evanston’s long-awaited comprehensive plan, councilmembers concluded the rental ordinance required additional review.
Ald. Tom Suffredin (6th) was not present at the time of the vote.
The proposed ordinance would amend the city’s Vacation Rentals Ordinance to define in detail what constitutes a short-term rental, limit the number of them, outline a process for appeal denials to Council and raise penalty fees for non-compliance.
Ald. Matt Rodgers (8th) called for more discussion about penalty fines for owners who fail to comply with the short-term rental ordinance.
The proposal currently includes an application fee for short-term rentals of $250 with an additional $250 annual licensing fee.
“I would like to see us go with an easy point of entry for people,” Rodgers said. “It’s easy for people to register, and it’s as inexpensive as possible for people, and we come down with a heavy hand for people who violate that.”
The current city code enforces $200, $500 and $750 dollar fines for first, second and third rental rule violations, respectively. The amended version increases all fines to $1,000 per violation.
Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) reiterated Rodgers’ point, adding she would like to see what can be done to “either incentivize owner-occupied and resident non-owner occupied” short-term rentals.
At their Jan. 12 meeting, councilmembers amended the document to require a distance of three or fewer miles between a property manager’s residence or office. They also increased the mandated distance between each short-term rental from 300 feet to 600 feet.
Kelly also expressed concern about the time length for short-term rentals Monday night. The new ordinance defines a short-term rental as a non-lease, furnished unit that is rented for less than a year. Current city code defines short-term rentals as any unit rented for less than 30 days.
Kelly said she hopes to avoid changing the sub-30 day qualification.
Rodgers also mentioned a possible conflict with state law, referencing Evanston resident Tina Paden’s Monday public comment about contradictory information in the ordinance proposal.
Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said there are still several aspects of the bill he would like to see changed, including a suggestion by Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) on Jan. 12 to require renters to use licensed third-party payment platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. This addition was not in the version considered Monday night.
“I think we are getting really close with this,” Nieuwsma said. “We’re not quite there.”
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