A sign against short-term rentals in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, May 11, 2023. Photo by Emil T. Lippe.
Airbnbs and Vrbos can’t operate in single-family neighborhoods, the Dallas City Council decided Wednesday.
The council voted 12-3 to ban short-term rental properties in single-family neighborhoods, approving a zoning change that defines STRs as lodging uses. Council members Chad West, Casey Thomas and Jaime Resendez voted against the motion.
“Talking with you guys over the last four years, I feel like most of you know that a compromise solution is the way to go, and that an outright ban is not,” West said to the council members. “I really do feel like that.”
Amending the City Plan Commission recommendation, the council decided to allow STRs in multifamily districts and require one off-street parking space per bedroom in STRs.
The zoning ordinance is in effect, but enforcement won’t begin for six months.
“It is time to take decisive action to preserve the quality of life in Dallas neighborhoods and not to delay any longer what our residents tonight and previously have been clamoring for,” District 14 City Council member Paul Ridley said during the meeting, which ended around midnight.
In addition to the zoning change, the council unanimously approved regulations for STR registration, inspection, renewal, revocation and associated fees. Like the zoning change, the City Code regulations are in effect but won’t be enforced for six months.
The decision to keep STRs out of single-family neighborhoods using zoning was in opposition to the official recommendation from Planning and Urban Design and Code Compliance Services, which came last week.
Dallas’ elected and appointed officials have spent years discussing STR regulations — at city council committee meetings, task force meetings and commission meetings, for example. Surveys have been sent by the city as well as individual city council representatives. And residents have been active in the process along the way, sharing their experiences as STR owners and neighbors of STR properties.
