Updated Information
This story was updated to include additional information about the commission's decisions at the Thursday meeting.
The Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission voted Thursday night to make two minor changes to a proposed ordinance regulating short-term rentals and sent it to City Council for consideration.
Planning and zoning commissioners listened — and talked — to residents for more than two hours about details of the proposed ordinance.
About 50 people attended the meeting. The majority of those who spoke were Columbia residents who own one, two or three short-term rental properties.
The multifaceted ordinance would limit short-term rentals to one per owner, cap the number of guests in a unit at eight, require a business license to offer a property for rental and prohibit events. The number of days a property could be rented out on a short-term basis would vary by zoning district.
Most of those speaking shared that nuisance issues were almost nonexistent and that they rented to nurses, professors, construction workers and families. A recurring theme was that the 120-day rental limit in the ordinance would not make Airbnb operation economically viable and that the property cap limits were too restrictive.
Before the hearing, the Columbia Board of Realtors submitted suggested changes to the commission. Those included increasing the limit on rental days and the cap on property ownership and removing the tier system and business license requirement.
Thomas Trabue presented the organization’s recommendations to the commission. When he concluded his remarks, many in the audience applauded.
Just a few people spoke in favor of the ordinance and represented a minority opinion at the meeting.
“I frankly like your ordinance. I think it is not restrictive enough in some ways,” Peter Norgard said.
“I’m hearing a lot of love for out-of-towners,” Christine Gardener said. “I’m not hearing much about the actual people who live in these neighborhoods.”
Commission members frequently posed questions to the short-term rental owners who spoke, and the hearing portion often felt like a casual conversation between commissioners and community members.
Commissioners solicited information on the number of nights owners rent their properties and owners’ recommendations on a property cap, limits on number of rental days and how to handle out-of-state property owners who can’t immediately respond to complaints.
Columbia Development Services Manager Pat Zenner emphasized the regulations would pertain only to properties rented out fewer than 31 consecutive days.
In response to a commissioner’s question on the current legality of short-term rentals, Assistant City Counselor Becky Thompson said it is not a permitted use in Columbia.
Despite discussion with short-term rental owners about increasing the number of short-term rental days for properties in residential areas and increasing the one-per-owner property limit, the commission chose to keep the current parameters in place.
Some of the reasoning included that the commission has, for years, debated and worked to define the limits in the ordinance, and the intent is to avoid fully-commercial enterprises in residential neighborhoods.
The commission passed two amendments to the ordinance. One changes references from rental days to nights, which aligns with a hospitality-oriented approach. The other changes the requirement that a designated agent live in Columbia to Boone County.
The ordinance will be placed on the City Council's agenda and be subject to a public hearing before that body before a final vote is taken.
The city’s planning department accepted written feedback before the hearing, and those comments are available on the city’s website as part of the commission’s Dec. 7 meeting agenda.
Comments revealed wide-ranging opinions. At opposing ends of the spectrum were those calling for an outright ban on short-term rentals and those calling for a complete absence of regulation.
Some comments pointed toward benefits of short-term rentals, such as meeting travelers’ desire for certain accommodations, job creation and tourist revenue for the city.
Others highlighted the need to preserve limited housing stock in a tight market.
