Cincinnati City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee yesterday batted down proposed legislation regulating short-term rentals in Cincinnati.
The proposed ordinance released by Cincinnati City Council member David Mann last week would have levied a 7 percent excise tax on short-term rentals such as those listed on sites like Airbnb and would have required those rentals to be registered and certified compliant with city safety regulations.
A number of local Airbnb owners say they don’t mind the tax — which is comparable to what hotels pay and which Mann would like to see flow into the city’s affordable housing trust fund — but claim the code compliance stipulations in the ordinance would be “onerous.”
Their main issue: That the ordinance would treat short-term rentals with more than four units as commercial, instead of residential, which would make them subject to commercial building code compliance.
“As soon as you say something is commercial, it is illegal in 70 percent of the city” because the areas where they are located are zoned residential, said Chris Hikel, a representative of local Airbnb operators. Hikel went on to say that the cost of compliance with commercial building code would run many Airbnb owners out of business.
Cincinnati Building and Inspection Department Director Art Dahlberg said that Airbnbs wouldn’t be restricted from certain neighborhoods as Hikel suggested because zoning code, not building code, dictates where commercial buildings can be located and that the ordinance wouldn’t change that. Dahlberg also said that treating larger Airbnbs as commercial properties is a matter of Ohio code, not the city’s discretion.
“The ordinance doesn’t establish new parameters,” Dahlberg told council committee yesterday. “This isn’t my interpretation of what the code says.”Airbnb owners took issue with that, and with the idea that they might have to install extra stairways, sprinkler systems and other items required by the commercial building code that aren’t in their residential buildings currently.
Mike Uhlenhake, an architect who owns an Airbnb in OTR, says the units help, not hurt, neighborhoods by bringing visitors who spend money with local businesses. He says Mann’s proposed regulations “could essentially end Airbnb in Cincinnati.”
Mann acknowledged that, while compliance would likely be very simple for some current operators, others might need more substantive work done to their properties to comply. But he said that’s what Ohio’s building code requires anyway. Mann says that visitors at Airbnbs aren’t as familiar with the buildings their staying in, leading to increased danger if they must exit the building quickly due to a fire. He pointed out that this is one reason hotels must meet commercial safety standards.
Others supported the rules. Stephanie Moes, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, called the regulations “reasonable.” Moes also pointed out that short term rentals in other cities have been tied to a decrease in affordable housing.
Supporters of short-term rentals here say there is no evidence that is the case in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is currently experiencing a large shortfall in affordable housing, and some critics say short term rental operators can often make more money renting out their units as Airbnbs at the city’s average of $109 a night than they can renting to monthly tenants.
But council member Chris Seelbach, who was skeptical about Mann’s ordinance, pointed out that Airbnbs require more work — cleaning up after guests leave, managing more reservations and other tasks.
According to Airdna, a site that tracks short term rental info, about 70 percent of the city’s 880 short term rentals are whole-building rentals, meaning all units are up for rent. Some popular neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine and Walnut Hills have seen a big increase in short term rentals in recent years.
Mann has been working on short term rental regulations for more than a year, first introducing caps on the number of units an operator could own last year. He has adjusted his proposals after feedback from Airbnb operators.
Like Seelbach, council members P.G. Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Greg Landsman and Tamaya Dennard were also skeptical about Mann’s ordinance. Dennard asked that city administration look into regulations passed in Cleveland and Columbus.
Columbus’ ordinance requires Airbnb operators register with the city and pay a tax like hotels do, but doesn’t cap the number of short term rentals someone can have or that can occupy a neighborhood. The city also set up a call center to handle noise and other nuisance complaints related to short term rentals.
Sittenfeld argued that further regulating Airbnbs might actually lower the amount of money raised for affordable housing.
“I think this notion that suppressing one (Airbnb) lifts up the other (affordable housing) isn’t true,” he said.
Mann said he will hold the legislation and try to rework it.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 3, 2019.