\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter several residents expressed concerns with nearby short-term rentals in the city, Bellaire City Council tightened the regulations surrounding STRs, a move that included adding a new ordinance to its city code and limiting where they can operate.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changed?<\/p>\n
According to the Nov. 17 agenda item<\/a>, the city previously only required STR owners to obtain a certificate of occupancy, which, according to the American Legal Publishing <\/a>website, is a legal document that certifies that a building is safe to be occupied and is in compliance with building codes and zoning laws.<\/p>\n However, after the council voted unanimously in favor of the new ordinance, regulations now prohibit STRs in residential districts and give existing owners 120 days from adoption\u2014Nov. 17\u2014to cease operations.<\/p>\n The new ordinance also:<\/p>\n Defines STRs and platformsProvides enforcement for owners, guests and platformsEstablishes permit, renewal, appeal and revocation rules and proceduresDeclares STRs as a nuisance in residential districts due to incompatibilityTravis Tanner, director of development services, said all known short-term rental owners in Bellaire were notified prior to the Nov. 17 meeting about the agenda item and the upcoming regulation changes.<\/p>\n City Attorney Alan Petrov said penalties for a violation of the ordinance will be the maximum fine allowed by state law, which can range from $500-$2,000 per day of offense.<\/p>\n The discussion<\/p>\n Bellaire officials originally considered adopting a short-term rental ordinance in 2021. However, despite a workshop taking place a few months later, the item was postponed and was never placed on an agenda for a motion.<\/p>\n The concept was then brought back to the table this fall, with a handful of residents at the Nov. 3 council meeting sharing concerns about how STRs are affecting the community, with complaints of increased noise, traffic and potential effects on housing affordability.<\/p>\n Jamie Perkins, a Bellaire resident, said she had a direct next-door neighbor who operated the home as a short-term rental, an experience she said was \u201cawful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAside from the typical standards, it brings additional crime into the neighborhood,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cIt brings trash because [guests] don\u2019t really care; it\u2019s just a hotel to them. Loud partying. Noises. There is no regulation of this, … and it\u2019s terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n During the same meeting, two other residents also shared their concerns about short-term rentals in their communities, citing issues with noise, strangers and disturbance of the \u201cneighborly ambience.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Nov. 17 meeting, Mayor Gus Pappas said that city officials also had no interest in allowing STRs to continue to operate within Bellaire and ultimately decided to create the new ordinance.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that has changed dramatically in this town, especially since 2021, is a proliferation of a lot of these businesses that now have rentals for people going to the [Texas] Medical Center,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cThat particular product has also helped us in that we don\u2019t really need these [STRs] anymore, or we don\u2019t have a compelling interest in these anymore at least.\u201d<\/p>\n Something to note<\/p>\n The ordinance states that short-term rentals will be permitted within mixed-use districts in the city, subject to a permit process. While council members discussed wanting to prohibit short-term rentals in all districts throughout Bellaire, due to potential legal issues, it was ultimately decided to allow rental owners to continue operations in approved districts.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After several residents expressed concerns with nearby short-term rentals in the city, Bellaire City Council tightened the regulations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6863,13563,6830,1604,17982,56,58,57,30166,223,30168,3686,16914,30169,7493,30167],"class_list":["post-54865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-bellaire","tag-city-council-meeting","tag-city-of-bellaire","tag-community-impact","tag-complaints","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-issues","tag-news","tag-nov-17-meeting","tag-ordinance","tag-short-term-rentals","tag-strs","tag-update","tag-what-was-done"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}