Are short-term rentals a major problem in Peoria? New city rules remain up in the air

The debate around how to best handle short-term rentals in Peoria will continue as the City Council was unable to come to a consensus Tuesday night on implementing further restrictions.

Peoria's City Council has been confounded for two years on how to best handle such rentals in the city. Yet, after another lengthy debate, a decision on a new policy was deferred to January's council meeting.

Current policies for short-term rentals dictate that all non-owner-occupied short-term rentals be approved by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council, giving neighborhoods and elected officials a chance to weigh in.

At the heart of the debate Tuesday night, among other policy changes, was whether the City Council should still approve every short-term rental that applies for a special-use permit.

City staff put together a proposal that would streamline the approval process for non-owner occupied short-term rentals but would also take the council out of the approval process.

Other proposed regulations include cutting the cap on how many short-term rentals can operate in a neighborhood from 3% of homes within a .25-mile radius of a neighborhood to 1% of homes within a .5-mile radius of a neighborhood. The new regulations would also make the distance short-term rentals must be from one another a minimum of 1,500 feet.

Councilmembers liked some but not all of the proposals city staff put in the proposed regulations. Once again, the city council asked city staff to go back to the drawing board on short-term rentals and revise the proposal.

"I just don't know where tonight we would make a valuable decision that's in the best interest of the citizens of Peoria," councilmember Bernice Gordon-Young said. "I think we need to defer this and gather more information and come up with something that is going to include some the great ideas that have been mentioned tonight."

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Some on the council believe the body has already spent too much time and energy debating Airbnbs when the impact on the city is minimal.

Of the 49 approved short-term rentals operating in Peoria, the city has received a complaint on just one.

"By corporation counsel's count, we have had one complaint in the city of Peoria about an STR since we instituted this program... are we looking at the speck in your eye while ignoring the log in my eye?" councilmember Tim Riggenbach said. "Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot believe the time and energy we are spending on something that has not become a problem."

Councilmember Zach Oyler said he would be amicable to some of the changes in the proposal but felt it was being presented to council in a "disingenuous way" as it was drawn up to address excessive complaints about Airbnbs. Oyler noted there had only been one complaint on a short-term rental approved by council and argued that short-term rentals are not even the biggest rental issues facing Peoria.

"We talk at nauseam about this subject, yet we don't talk about the normal month-to-month rental, the student housing rentals — heck, even the property owners that sit in here for code violations," Oyler said. "We have to have staff to just to deal with all of the complaints that those entities provide, yet we go in circle after circle over a handful of people related to this specific issue."

Others on the council felt it was imperative those around the horseshoe continue to vote on Airbnbs and allow neighbors to speak in front of the council and Planning and Zoning Commission on them.

"I think we're going to have a situation where it looks as if we're tightening up if we reduce the fraction, but you're not going to have the oversight anymore and your constituents will hold you to account if you relinquish being the final resting spot for the approval of mini-hotels, short-term rentals in this community," councilmember Chuck Grayeb said.

The debate on short-term rentals in Peoria, as Mayor Rita Ali pointed out Tuesday night, is "complex" and "not cut and dried," which is why the council has had such long discussions on how to handle Airbnbs.

"I am extremely frustrated. My constituents vote for me to make my best judgment call, and if we're going to do STRs, let's do it right," Riggenbach said. "If we think they're a commercial development in a residential area, let's just outlaw them all together — see if you've got six votes for that, because I do not understand where we're going here."

Yet again, Grayeb said council input was vital to short-term rental regulation.

"The minute you think you're above this process that you shouldn't be advocating for the will of the people in your district that are impacted by a short-term rental, you don't belong here," Grayeb said. "If it's that onerous for you, you don't belong here."

Councilmembers such as Grayeb, whose 2nd District includes no homeowners associations with restrictive covenants, felt the council was the only outlet concerned neighbors have to vocalize their opinions on short-term rentals.

A host of other councilmembers agreed with that notion, making it a sticking point in the debate.

"I do think shrinking the pool of allowance protects the neighborhoods that don't have the infrastructure in place to advocate for themselves," councilmember Andre Allen said. "I am a little nervous about removing the council — although, I will be honest, I do get heartburn every time I see a short-term rental on the agenda. But I am hesitant to remove our ability to weigh in, because I think of the neighborhoods that elect us to do this job, and they want us to be the sounding board for them."

Councilmember Mike Vespa pointed to the denial of an Airbnb in November as the exact reason council input was necessary. In that case, the council rejected the property because it was near an elementary school.

"It does trouble me that we would not notify neighborhoods if we are going to approve basically a commercial property — basically a hotel room next door. Because if your house next door is a revolving door, you basically don't have a neighbor, it's people coming in and out. Where are the background checks?" Vespa said.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria debates new rules for short-term rentals and Airbnbs