Plano City Council wants to consider a temporary ban on short-term rentals until the city decides how it will regulate the properties community members have fought against for nearly a year.
At Monday’s City Council meeting, several council members floated the idea around after a discussion about the legality of a prospective short-term rental ordinance in Plano. City attorney Paige Mims told over two dozen residents railing against short-term rentals that Plano cannot restrict assembly at short-term rentals or enforce a city-wide ban.
Citing rulings regarding cities like Grapevine, which has faced legal trouble for regulating short-term rentals, Mims said relying on current definitions to prohibit STRs would be indefensible. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maria Tu said, while she wants to protect neighbors, she’s also concerned about legal implications and if an outright ban would be responsible.
“I certainly do not want a heat-of-passion to result in our city spending years of our hard-earned tax dollars in litigation, one way or the other,” Tu said. “I think that’s the wrong way to go.”
Other council members voiced that they wanted to prioritize residents’ concerns and respect the active zoning ordinances, which prohibit hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts from single-family residential areas. Short-term rentals are properties rented out for 30 days or less through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.
While the city didn’t agree to anything definitive regarding a short-term rental ordinance, Plano Mayor John Muns said they are just considering a temporary ban.
Residents want Plano to follow Arlington’s model, where short-term rentals are restricted to the entertainment zone and banned from single-family residential neighborhoods. While the city has begun a short-term rental registration process and is collecting data from municipalities like Arlington, Mims said Plano is different and doesn’t have the same zoning definitions as Arlington.
Place 5 council member Shelby Williams said the properties simply were never allowed, according to Plano’s zoning ordinances. Williams also challenged the argument that enforcing a ban would inflict on the property rights of owners.
“We know that property rights aren’t absolute,” Williams said. ” If they were, then we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.”
The discussion of short-term rentals moved up from April to Monday following a shooting connected to a short-term rental on Feb. 26. It came two weeks after the incident left bullet holes in a nearby resident’s home and nearly a year after Bill France sent a letter to the Plano City Council about his grievances with short-term rentals in Plano’s neighborhoods.