College Station Council Pushes Envelope on Regulation of Short-Term Rentals

9,005 Views | 65 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Gigem314
bcschamp365
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A more liberal College Station council is about to rain down new regulations that limit short-term rentals. This is in large part being done to limit competition for local hoteliers that have overbuilt the market. Meanwhile it takes away our individual property rights to rent our houses a couple of weekends a year.

At the same time they are revisiting tree ordinances and impact fees that will drive up the cost of living in College Station.

Congrats to the City of Bryan. More homes and businesses are headed your way.

Read Here - https://www.theeagle.com/news/local/college-station-begins-drafting-of-short-term-rentals-ordinance/article_997db048-3f38-11ea-ae0c-5b8d9bebe324.html

Watch Here - https://collegestationtx.civicclerk.com/Web/Player.aspx?id=16&key=-1&mod=-1&mk=-1&nov=0
Donny Hall
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Complying with Texas tax code would seem reasonable. Regulation is sometimes ok.

Trees are cool.

Impact fees are questionable.


oklaunion
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I have a friend in San Antone who is a city tree evaluator and fine deliverer. They are strict over there and taking out a large oak can cost thousands.
FamousAgg
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I hate seeing what appears to be animosity between the cities. I have been told that these days it is much better than in the past.

In my opinion, both councils are in the process of "making their beds" and we will see how they like it when it comes to sleeping in them.

Unfortunately these council members will likely be gone before they have to feel the full effects (or backlash). They will have also got what they wanted from their positions and be ready to move on to the next venture.
Stupe
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S
Quote:

Meanwhile it takes away our individual property rights to rent our houses a couple of weekends a year.
How does this take that away?

Be specific.
ukbb2003
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"The council also approved a resolution that allows Woods to start conducting an assessment of the College Station hotel and tourism market."

How about not build so many hotels.
Gigem314
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AG
The basic idea of a homeowner renting out their personal residence a few weekends a year isn't that big of a deal on the surface.

The problem? Human nature.

People push the envelope. Case and point, neighbors on our street that completely moved out of their residence and turned it into a full-time short term rental...

A response like this is an unintended consequence for something that was never defined.

People want to complain about hotels and the city pushing the envelope. Well so have people that turned a small thing into their own personal business.

Nobody wants to live next door to a hotel.

Can't say I'm overly sympathetic.
AggieBaseball06
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AG
bcschamp365 said:

A more liberal College Station council is about to rain down new regulations that limit short-term rentals. This is in large part being done to limit competition for local hoteliers that have overbuilt the market. Meanwhile it takes away our individual property rights to rent our houses a couple of weekends a year.

At the same time they are revisiting tree ordinances and impact fees that will drive up the cost of living in College Station.

Congrats to the City of Bryan. More homes and businesses are headed your way.

Read Here - https://www.theeagle.com/news/local/college-station-begins-drafting-of-short-term-rentals-ordinance/article_997db048-3f38-11ea-ae0c-5b8d9bebe324.html

Watch Here - https://collegestationtx.civicclerk.com/Web/Player.aspx?id=16&key=-1&mod=-1&mk=-1&nov=0


I call BS. I would estimate the percentage of people are in the short term rental game who want to rent our their place "a couple" of weekends/year is 1% or less. Even if you "only" did it for the big weekends, that's 7 home games, 3 graduations, parent's weekend, and 2 other ring days. That's 13/52 weekends or 25%. Asking you to pay taxes on a rental that is booked 25% of the weekends of the year is not a ridiculous proposition.
Aggieangler93
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AG
I don't understand folks claiming that College Station is overbuilt for hotels. When we come in there on game weekends, we pay somewhere between $200 and $400 a night for a sorry hotel room, and on parent's weekend, you cannot find a room if you don't look 6 mos in advance.

College Station city council wanting their piece of the taxes is nothing new like all the rest of the cities, but the complaining about too many hotels seems like that is off base here.

If there were too many, we wouldn't see a 100% price increase for a weekend night room. No one would pay it, and competition would drive prices down.

Now....are there many unbooked rooms on a Wednesday in Feb? Probably, but they more than make up for it on weekends, or they would be closing them down. Even the old ratty places that have been there for 60 years are full.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
Brian Alg
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I don't think most anyone has an issue with making sure the HOT is assessed.

People don't seem to start having problems until they start talking about the registration fees, the inspections, the brochure, selective parking restrictions, whatever "protections" Crompton has in mind, and the other rules that we don't know about yet.
Brian Alg

Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government
Anna Molly
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You are all among the 1,152 who have voted early in the City Council election, yes? There is a City Council election happening right now. If you are registered to vote in College Station and threads like this (or transportation, or ordinances, or whatever) inspire feelings in you...you need to vote. These decisions are made by people who are voted into office. Educate yourself, and vote.

If you haven't voted, JANUARY 28 (tomorrow) IS ELECTION DAY. Please VOTE.
new straw
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I live in a highly trafficked area for short term rentals. Our hoa says no, but it continues. I would love to get decent sleep while working nights. Football season makes that hard. I'm down with cocs enforcing mote regulations
Drilltime
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Short term rentals have never been allowed in College Station's general suburban zoning unles the owner is present and it's registered as a conventional B&B. Owners do not have any property right other than that allowed by the zoning they purchased, so the claim that a right is being taken away is incorrect. If it was important to you, you should have bought property that did not come with this legal restriction. What the city is considering is making them legal. This is about giving a right, not taking a right.

The zoning ordinance says the city will protects those who buy houses in it's residential neighborhoods from "incompatible" uses. That is a broad commitment we all need to be able to trust in. So what they are trying to decide are issues like the numbers of people allowed or cars that can be parked on the street. How much is too much in a neighborhood environment with families and children? While these started as weekend rentals when the owners were away, they are now full time commercial hotels. Full stop. The frats are already renting them for reunion parties and companies are renting them for construction workers. What could be less compatible with families and children than a house full of adult construction workers coming and going. At least apartments at do background checks.

You're probably also imagining a B&B style house with character and big trees in some historic neighborhood. Very cute. In reality you're about to see the first of the fit for purpose STR architecture. While rentals are limited to no more than 4 unrelated students, there is no regulation at all of the number of people in an STR. Consequently the more bedrooms you build the more money you make and investors will maximize profit by clear cutting the big trees and filling the lot from building line to building line with house. It's already happening.

These are hotels. There is no legal right to put one in a residential neighborhood in College Station. If you do decide to allow them, you need to regulate the intensity of use so that they are compatible with families and children. I doubt we can actually do that.

cslifer
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[Please be respectful when posting on this particular forum. -Staff]
Jinx
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bcschamp365 said:

liberal

new regulations that limit

take away our individual property rights

drive up the cost of living in College Station.

Congrats to the City of Bryan.
I'm not sure how there can be so much disagreeing in this thread. I mean, they used all the buzzwords!

I think it's a good thing, personally, for many of the reasons already stated here. Thumbs up.
Stupe
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S
What you are describing are the 8 or 10 weekends out of 52 where there is a shortage.

That is not the case during the rest of the year...even on home baseball weekends.
Sweet Kitten Feet
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S
So what that's this about trees?
wareagle044
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Tell me about the trees too
Drilltime
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I don't think Council's directive to city staff was to look at tree's but to look at "buffering" between existing houses and new construction.

Leaving the old mature trees in the building "setback" areas on the edge of the lot where where you already can't build might be an option. But that's not exactly what city staff was asked to do.

Staff seems to have a lot of higher priorities in the pipeline and may not be presenting any actual ideas on how to "buffer" for awhile.
AggieBarstool
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AggieBaseball06 said:

Asking you to pay taxes on a rental that is booked 25% of the weekends of the year is not a ridiculous proposition.


Asking the government (and my nosy, busy-body neighbors) to stay the hell out of my business and how I use/take care of my home is not a ridiculous proposition.
RafterAg223
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AG
Lord Crompton has tried this tree ordinance before. It got tabled back then after huge pushback from a number of individuals, including arborists and the like. He wanted to include post oaks as a specimen tree, thus greatly increasing the cost of delivering a home in this city. Post oaks can die if you look at them the wrong way. They are anything but a specimen tree. This isn't about trees at all. This is about this new Crompton/Maloney council doing whatever they can do to stifle growth in College Station.
wareagle044
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RafterAg223 said:

Lord Crompton has tried this tree ordinance before. It got tabled back then after huge pushback from a number of individuals, including arborists and the like. He wanted to include post oaks as a specimen tree, thus greatly increasing the cost of delivering a home in this city. Post oaks can die if you look at them the wrong way. They are anything but a specimen tree. This isn't about trees at all. This is about this new Crompton/Maloney council doing whatever they can do to stifle growth in College Station.


Whats a specimen tree?
RafterAg223
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AG
Ask the council from several years back what a "specimen tree" is. That was the first I had heard of such a thing. I guess it is a tree that requires saving. If you don't, you face highly punitive monetary fines. They kept referring to the Austin tree ordinance when they brought it up before.
wareagle044
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Looks like it's a tree that is the focal part of your garden according to the google
BCS-Ag
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Wasn't this area a prairie with very few trees naturally? If so, how can there even be such a thing as a specimen tree?
txgardengirl
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/but did you vote?
Gigem314
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Drilltime said:

While these started as weekend rentals when the owners were away, they are now full time commercial hotels. Full stop. The frats are already renting them for reunion parties and companies are renting them for construction workers. What could be less compatible with families and children than a house full of adult construction workers coming and going. At least apartments at do background checks.
And this is EXACTLY what I've seen take place.

At that point it ceases to be a homeowner occasionally letting someone stay in their personal residence, where neighbors probably don't even realize it because they know the owners and the owners actually live there...to being an under-the-table full-time hotel where there are strangers going in and out week after week or month after month.

It's a bigger problem than many are willing to acknowledge. And I think if someone actually had to live near or next to something like that, they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.
techno-ag
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Gigem314 said:

Drilltime said:

While these started as weekend rentals when the owners were away, they are now full time commercial hotels. Full stop. The frats are already renting them for reunion parties and companies are renting them for construction workers. What could be less compatible with families and children than a house full of adult construction workers coming and going. At least apartments at do background checks.
And this is EXACTLY what I've seen take place.

At that point it ceases to be a homeowner occasionally letting someone stay in their personal residence, where neighbors probably don't even realize it because they know the owners and the owners actually live there...to being an under-the-table full-time hotel where there are strangers going in and out week after week or month after month.

It's a bigger problem than many are willing to acknowledge. And I think if someone actually had to live near or next to something like that, they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.
Hm. Not that I'm doubting some neighbors have gotten irritated that families on their street might be earning a little extra coin, but I did a quick search on AirBNB for houses available this weekend.

I filtered for whole house for rent, which seems to be the irritant. Unfortunately it throws in Bryan and other nearby properties so it was tough to get an accurate count inside the CS city limits. It showed 144 properties available, but the map indicated most were in Bryan or out of city limits.

With a population of more than 100k we're looking at less than one percent renting their house out. Since this is not a game weekend it would seem the evidence does not support rampant weekly rentals in the city.
Gigem314
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techno-ag said:


Hm. Not that I'm doubting some neighbors have gotten irritated that families on their street might be earning a little extra coin, but I did a quick search on AirBNB for houses available this weekend.

I filtered for whole house for rent, which seems to be the irritant. Unfortunately it throws in Bryan and other nearby properties so it was tough to get an accurate count inside the CS city limits. It showed 144 properties available, but the map indicated most were in Bryan or out of city limits.

With a population of more than 100k we're looking at less than one percent renting their house out. Since this is not a game weekend it would seem the evidence does not support rampant weekly rentals in the city.
I'm not saying it's rampant, but I do live near one, and the post I responded to describes it pretty accurately.

But your bolded statement above speaks to the lack of understanding or definition of this.

In the example I'm talking about, that doesn't fit the description. There is no "family" on my street earning "a little extra coin". It's a faceless house with no resident that's been turned into a full-time business/hotel to yield more than just a little extra pocket money from a few weekends a year. Some people want to act like it doesn't happen and isn't becoming a problem, but it is.
techno-ag
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AG
Gigem314 said:

techno-ag said:


Hm. Not that I'm doubting some neighbors have gotten irritated that families on their street might be earning a little extra coin, but I did a quick search on AirBNB for houses available this weekend.

I filtered for whole house for rent, which seems to be the irritant. Unfortunately it throws in Bryan and other nearby properties so it was tough to get an accurate count inside the CS city limits. It showed 144 properties available, but the map indicated most were in Bryan or out of city limits.

With a population of more than 100k we're looking at less than one percent renting their house out. Since this is not a game weekend it would seem the evidence does not support rampant weekly rentals in the city.
I'm not saying it's rampant, but I do live near one, and the post I responded to describes it pretty accurately.

But your bolded statement above speaks to the lack of understanding or definition of this.

In the example I'm talking about, that doesn't fit the description. There is no "family" on my street earning "a little extra coin". It's a faceless house with no resident that's been turned into a full-time business/hotel to yield more than just a little extra pocket money from a few weekends a year. Some people want to act like it doesn't happen and isn't becoming a problem, but it is.
Just to be clear, I'm not indicating it's not happening so I'm not in your group of "some people."

Having said that, I don't see the evidence for it being a widespread rampant problem. Full disclosure, I have used one of my rental properties as a short term rental when it went vacant for a while. It never rented on a weekend that was not a game or graduation. That includes summer weekends with the firemen here and other activities. Again, I just do not see a widespread rampant abuse of short term rentals.
Stupe
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S
Quote:

Hm. Not that I'm doubting some neighbors have gotten irritated that families on their street might be earning a little extra coin,
That is ridiculously blatant trolling statement.

NOBODY is irritated because someone is making extra money and you know that.

Anyone that answers or debates that sentence is falling for a trolling argument.
UmustBKidding
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But this proposed regulation along with the existing ones are all about the MONEY. I can invite my sons scout troop or robot club to spend the weekend at my house, and its not prohibited that I can find. But If I charged them anything it is. If my friend that has kids on 7on7 football want to use my house for a week for the state tournament and I say he can if he finds me a place to stay, should be ok. But if I say give me the cash so I can rent a place to stay, now illegal.
I believe the regulations should be about the bad behavior not about the money or even the relationships. Loud late night parties, already regulated. Parking cars on the grass or wrong way on the street, already regulated. If there is behavior that is a problem enumerate it and enforce. I realize having unrelated people together may provide opportunity for undesired behavior but what if a dozen monks want to rent my garage apartment, should the pay the penalty for others potentially bad behavior.

new straw
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Why the heck would you charge your friend to stay in your house? Or charge for what sounds like a sleepover? And statewide regulations already prevent more than two people per room, so the monks in a garage apartment is a moot point. (Unless that is some huge 6 bedroom place)
Gigem314
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techno-ag said:

Just to be clear, I'm not indicating it's not happening so I'm not in your group of "some people."

Having said that, I don't see the evidence for it being a widespread rampant problem. Full disclosure, I have used one of my rental properties as a short term rental when it went vacant for a while. It never rented on a weekend that was not a game or graduation. That includes summer weekends with the firemen here and other activities. Again, I just do not see a widespread rampant abuse of short term rentals.
That's fine, and I would expect a response like that from someone that's going to look out for their personal business first. However, I do tend to find others in your category more abrasive and dismissive of the problems. It's not as black-and-white as some want to portray it.

There's a massive gray area here and I think it leaves things open for people to push the envelope. And while it may not be rampant (I never claimed it was to begin with)...the problem isn't going away with the status quo. It will only get worse. This wasn't even on the radar of most communities a few years ago, and now look at where it is.

I'm not even saying there's an ideal solution. There may not be. But unintended consequences are probably going to come from this in one form or another.
techno-ag
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AG
Gigem314 said:

techno-ag said:

Just to be clear, I'm not indicating it's not happening so I'm not in your group of "some people."

Having said that, I don't see the evidence for it being a widespread rampant problem. Full disclosure, I have used one of my rental properties as a short term rental when it went vacant for a while. It never rented on a weekend that was not a game or graduation. That includes summer weekends with the firemen here and other activities. Again, I just do not see a widespread rampant abuse of short term rentals.
That's fine, and I would expect a response like that from someone that's going to look out for their personal business first. However, I do tend to find others in your category more abrasive and dismissive of the problems. It's not as black-and-white as some want to portray it.

There's a massive gray area here and I think it leaves things open for people to push the envelope. And while it may not be rampant (I never claimed it was to begin with)...the problem isn't going away with the status quo. It will only get worse. This wasn't even on the radar of most communities a few years ago, and now look at where it is.

I'm not even saying there's an ideal solution. There may not be. But unintended consequences are probably going to come from this in one form or another.
Agreed with the bold.
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