KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After weeks of being held in committee, ordinances surrounding short-term rentals are moving to the full Kansas City, Missouri, City Council on Thursday.
Neighbors who have pushed for changes are happy with this movement forward, while rental owners who are operating legally said the move will cause a shift in ownership.
“Now we’re shifting this short-term rental industry from the people of Kansas City, to the big corporations, and that’s what we were trying to avoid,” said Kristen Doppelt, a rental owner and manager.
As the ordinances are written right now, owners must live in their rentals if they are located in residential zoned areas. Non-owner-occupied rentals can establish themselves in commercially zoned areas or any other areas that are not zone for residential.
Neighbors see the ordinances as a compromise – dropping the requirement for owners to get a certain number of signatures from neighbors, but adding density requirements.
“Our whole entire neighborhood has really felt the devastating impacts of short-term rentals,” said Stacy Lake, a Hyde Park resident. “Especially with the parties, the littering.”
The committee did give the option to look back at this ordinance in a year to see how it’s working.
“There may be a need to expand this,” KCMO Councilman Eric Bunch, who sponsored the ordinances, said. “I don’t know right now. What I know right now is we have neighborhoods that are completely saturated with short-term rentals and so this is where we’ve decided to draw the line right now.”
The full council meets Thursday at 3 p.m.
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