The Knoxville City Council gave first approval to an ordinance regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. Rachel Ohm/ News Sentinel.
After months of stops and starts, the Knoxville City Council approved the city’s proposed short-term rental ordinance on second reading Tuesday. The vote brings oversight to a growing business that had gone unregulated for several years.
The ordinance takes effect Jan. 2 and will allow short-term rentals (STRs) in owner-occupied homes in residential areas and in any nonresidential district so long as the renter is properly permitted.
“I think there are a lot of people, who may not love every little bit of it which is hard to do with any law, will like the predictability it provides because people now know what they can do legally. That’s been clarified,” Jesse Mayshark, spokesman for Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, said after the vote.
The ordinance passed 6-2. Vice Mayor Duane Grieve and Councilman Nick Della Volpe opposed the vote. Councilman George Wallace was not present.
New measure in STR ordinance
The council voted to give non-owner occupied STRs an option of obtaining a separate permit that will allow them to continue operating for a year until the measure sunsets. Those STR-users will not be grandfathered in.
Councilman Nick Pavlis said the year would give them time to get their finances in order, so they have time to decide if they will sell or rent out the space permanently and allow them to keep their guests who have already booked space.
Those owners will have 30 days after the Jan. 2 start to obtain those permits.
It also provides for minimum safety requirements and the collection of hotel and occupancy taxes.
The council’s vote goes against at least 10 neighborhood groups, particularly groups from North and West Knoxville, which loudly petitioned against the proposed ordinance for months. For the second consecutive meeting Grieve had amendments voted down that would have limited the STRs.
Many of those complaints Grieve represented centered on the belief that STRs are detrimental to neighborhoods and pose a threat to safety and quality of life.
The vote also means the city will have an ordinance on the books before the Tennessee General Assembly begins in January, something the mayor’s staff has been pushing behind the scenes from day one. The legislature has attempted to regulate STRs across the state, while local municipalities have argued it should be left up to the cities. Knoxville is the last major city in the state to pass a STR ordinance.
Pause on Parkridge historic zoning
The council adhered to Mayor Madeline Rogero’s request and postponed a controversial decision on the historic overlay for East Knoxville’s Parkridge neighborhood.
The unanimous vote moves the topic, which has caused deep divisions within the community, onto the next council’s plate, six months from now.
Rogero said the city would look deeper into the questions posed by community members on both side of the issue and hire a third party mediator if necessary to help facilitate the process.
“What I heard from both sides is a willingness for mediation (and) to reach out and try to bring the sides together … we don’t have the plan yet, a lot of it depends on the conversations,” she said.
Earlier this month at the council’s last meeting, the council approved the zoning 6-3, but Rogero reached out to council members days later and requested they postpone the vote after hearing concerns from newly elected District 6 representative, Gwen McKenzie, and current representative Daniel Brown.
Parkridge resident and homeowner Kennie Riffey speaks talks about the drawbacks of H1 historical zoning for the Parkridge community.
Those concerns include the requirement that property owners apply for a certification for renovation projects done to the exterior of buildings in the overlay and a deep concern for what an overlay would mean to the fabric of the community, including what it would mean for the city’s dwindling stock of affordable housing.
Proponents of the overlay have said the community is changing and the structures that make up the community need to be preserved.
Parkridge’s current H-1 overlay consists of 189 parcels. If approved next year, another 522 homes will be covered.
Jennifer Montgomery, president of the Parkridge Community Organization, talks about how she loves to living in the Parkridge Community. Michael Patrick/News Sentinel