City Council votes on Short-Term Rental limits on March 23. Please submit a comment.
Call to Action
Advocacy Alert:
Your Help IS Needed to Limit
Short Term Rentals
The City Council will vote on new Short Term Rental (STR) regulations on March 23, 2023. We need your help! Ask the City Council to limit STR proliferation.
In August 2022, a federal appeals court ruled that the Homestead Exemption requirement established in the 2019 Short Term Rental (STR) legislative package violated the rights of STR owners domiciled outside of Louisiana. In response, the City Council, led by JP Morrell, immediately moved to re-open the regulations and passed an Interim Zoning District (IZD) to prevent the issuance of any new permits, ideally for one year, until new rules could be put in place. Then, in December, a 5th Circuit Court ruling demanded that the city must accelerate the process so that all new regulations would be in place by March 31, 2023.
We need your help! Here’s what you can do:
Call and write the City Council.
(See information below.)
Show up and speak at City Hall.
(See dates below.)
Louisiana Landmarks Society’s
Position on Short Term Rentals
The history of Short Term Rentals (STRs) in New Orleans and elsewhere demonstrates that:
STRs increase the cost of housing
STRs greatly exacerbate the shortage of both affordable and market-rate housing
STRs break the social bonds of neighborhoods by replacing long-term residents with a constant revolving door of transients, creating ghost houses, ghost blocks and ghost neighborhoods
STRs pit neighbors against neighbors
STRs degrade the residential quality-of-life by increasing noise, trash, traffic — and displacing long-term neighbors
Prior attempts to “permit and regulate” STRs have failed miserably.
The federal court’s interpretation of the dormant commerce clause will require the City to open up the market for STRs to an untold number of out-of-town investors. Without a total ban, speculators from all over the world will be looking for any and all ways to work around the system to convert residential properties for commercial gain. We must not allow our housing to be commodified.
Out-of-town investors can easily find ways around any proposed limitations. If Short Term Rentals are not simply banned outright, we can expect both the number of STRs and the negative consequences of STRs to explode.
We recognize that a ban would cause some pain, but that pain will be small compared to the pain of those unhoused and under-housed today and in the future. Prior councils have tried to manage STRs without a ban, but that model has failed.
Therefore, it would be prudent and reasonable for the City to ban all Short Term Rentals. Any other decision will amplify the housing shortage, drive long-term residents from their homes, fracture our unique culture, and decimate neighborhoods.
We urge the City Council to recognize the failure of years of attempted regulation, and simply ban STRs completely.
If the City Council does not ban STRs completely, we would urge the Council to limit STRs and the harm they cause by adopting the following:
1. Density Restriction — limiting to no more than one per block square — and one per parcel.
One STR per blockface is far too permissive, allowing more STRs than the current number of listings (including the illegal listings). A more reasonable approach would be to restrict STRs to one per block square, with only one per parcel.
2. Include Bed & Breakfast Accessories in the density cap.
Despite the name, the Bed & Breakfast Accessory is not an accessory structure. It is a free-standing residential dwelling unit with up to 5 guest bedrooms. An operator must reside on-site. The current recommendation is to make it a Conditional Use. If adopted, this will vest the property rights in perpetuity and allow it to bypass the STR density cap.
3. Commercial STRs need to be addressed.
Traditional New Orleans neighborhoods have pockets of commercial corridors, main streets, and corner-store style businesses, with a higher density of residential units on the upper floors. Density restrictions for these types of STRs will prevent the unfettered conversion of housing and even commercial uses into STRs. If there is no cap on STRs in commercial districts and uses, we will likely see an unrelenting stream of applications that will monopolize municipal resources.
4. Prevent the wholesale conversion of entire buildings into hotels and STRs.
Include new rules in the CZO to prevent the conversion of entire residential apartment and condo buildings into short term rentals and/or hotels. At a minimum, tie any building conversions or planned adaptive reuse projects for lodging accommodations to a meaningful number of affordable set-asides.
5. Expand neighborhood prohibitions AND maintain existing prohibitions.
Historic neighborhoods throughout the city have been hollowed out by STRs. Prohibitions like those currently in effect in the French Quarter and Garden District neighborhoods should be expanded to historic neighborhoods such as Marigny, Tremé, etc. These additional prohibitions will help return housing stock to the residential market and reverse the corrosive effects of the past decade’s legislative and enforcement failures.
6. Restrict STRs to ownership by a natural person only. Require a full-time operator on-site.
Both the property owner and the permit holder must be a natural person — not a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) or some other incorporated entity. A person over the age of 18 must reside at the STR full time. This person (the operator) must be charged with being the point of contact and with mitigating any disturbances emanating from the STR unit.
7. Owners must be restricted to one STR per person.
If there is no limit on the number of STRs per owner, investors will be able to purchase multiple properties and simply hire an on-site operator for each. This is exactly what the city should be trying to avoid. Wealthy individual investor-profiteers should be prevented from commodifying the local housing stock. Ideally, the owner and operator should be the same person, with the operator required to live on-site.
8. Permits, fees, fines, enforcement & adjudications
Increase permit fees and fines for violations and use those monies to fully fund the STR office. Increase the number of adjudications and have a city attorney present during all hearings to insure that violators are held responsible and to reduce the possibility of city liability and subsequent lawsuits. Utilize the NoticeMe notification tool to publicly announce violations and scheduled adjudication hearings. All serious violations, such as operating without a permit, should be immediately referred to adjudication and made punishable with a ban on the property and owner receiving any STR license for the next 10 years.
Operational requirements should be built into the permit, violation of which becomes an adjudicatory matter. Permit restrictions should mandate: posting the contact information of owners and operators; a safety plan; a plan for noise abatement; a waste disposal plan; limits on parking; limits on total occupancy, and other restrictions.
9. Require life safety code adherence & ADA accessibility.
All STRs should have liability insurance of at least $1,000,000. All STRs should be equipped with sprinkler systems, exit signs, and ADA accessibility. An inspection system must be in place for the regular evaluation of each unit by a city employee in response to complaints.
10. Limit occupancy to 6 people per unit.
11. Increase trash collection fees for all STR permit holders.
12. Enforcement
Regulation will be useless without well designed and dedicated enforcement. Prior attempts to regulate STRs suffered from inadequate and bureaucratically complex regulations, toothless regulators, and from penalties that were too small and too easily ignored. In order for regulation to succeed, operators and platform operators need to know that violations will be discovered and reported, and will lead to substantial penalties, including temporary and permanent loss of their licenses.
What you can do
Please help to increase housing availability and return our neighborhoods to our residents by asking the City Council to place meaningful limits on STRs. The final decisions will be made on March 23, 2023. Please add your voice by emailing or calling the City Councilmembers—and/or by speaking at the public meetings listed below.
Email the City Council:
(Copy and paste the email addresses below. Written public comments should be emailed to Councilmembers by 8 a.m. on the day of the public meetings.)
JP.Morrell@nola.gov; helena.moreno@nola.gov; joseph.giarrusso@nola.gov; Lesli.Harris@nola.gov;Freddie.King@nola.gov; eugene.green@nola.gov; Oliver.Thomas@nola.gov
Call the City Council:
District A – Joseph Giarrusso – (504) 658-1010
District B – Lesli Harris – (504) 658-1020
District C – Freddie King – (504) 658-1030
District D – Eugene Green – (504) 658-1040
District E – Oliver Thomas – (504) 658-1050
At-Large – Helena Moreno – (504) 658-1060
At-Large – JP Morrell – (504) 658-1070
Speak at public meetings at City Hall:
March 2, 2023, 10 a.m. — Special City Council meeting to introduce STR motions and hear public comment
March 14, 2023, 10 a.m. — Governmental Affairs Committee Meeting
March 23, 2023 (time TBA) — Final vote on new ordinance and amendments at the Regular Meeting of the City Council
Thank you for your support!
Louisiana Landmarks Society
info@louisianalandmarks.org | (504) 482-0312