New recommendation for Dallas short-term rentals goes against zoning experts

DALLAS - After four years of debate about where short-term rentals like Airbnbs and Vrbos should be allowed in Dallas, city council members are set to cast the deciding vote Wednesday. 

But just days before the key vote, city staff issued a new recommendation that goes against the city's zoning experts.

A city memo released late Friday says the Dallas planning and urban design staff believes short-term rentals should be allowed to operate everywhere in the city with regulations. 

For six months, Dallas City Council members have considered a recommendation to define short-term rentals in the city as lodging.  That came from the city plan commission made up of zoning experts like Melissa Kingston, a land use attorney. 

"That leaves a lot of places in the city where you could still operate them," she said. "But you would not be able to operate them, for example, in single-family neighborhoods."

But last Friday, Dallas city staff weighed in with a different recommendation to allow short-term rentals everywhere in the city coupled with regulations. 

"And now, at the eleventh hour, they've done a 180," Kingston said. "I don't think it was done in good faith."

Kingston, who volunteered her time on the plan commission, says the last-minute recommendation is thwarting the process. 

"It is incredibly unfair to the residents on both sides of the issue who had literally spent hundreds of hours down at city hall, taking days off of work, arguing their positions and advocating for their positions, many of whom view this as a fight for their very homes," Kingston said.

Kingston says her commission not only considered protecting the peace and safety of Dallas residents in their recommendation, but they also considered the impact of homes being bought up by corporations on the availability of affordable housing. 

"We are in a housing crisis. And if you take anywhere from 3 to 5, 8,000 units of housing, depending on where you get your numbers, turn it into lodging, which we have an abundance of, then you are creating or exacerbating our already terrible housing problem," Kingston said. "And you are increasing the cost of housing."

Dallas City Councilman Paul Ridley says the last-minute staff proposal represents a sea change in the debate.

When asked if there has been enough opportunity for the public to weigh in on this staff recommendation, Ridley said no.

"It's important if they wish to register their opinion to provide that opinion to their city council representatives before Wednesday or at the hearing on Wednesday.

FOX 4 requested an interview with the director of the city's planning and urban design staff so she could explain her recommendation. A spokesperson for the city declined our request, saying to check back after the vote.