Plano City Council has decided to ignore the pleas of its residents to end short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. Instead, the City has drafted an ordinance to register short-term rentals, and Plano City Council is scheduled to vote on this ordinance on Monday, November 14. (Read the ordinance.)
TNC Plano is opposed to this ordinance for many reasons:
The ordinance does the exact opposite of its stated intent: advancing the objective of championing great neighborhoods in Plano. Instead, the ordinance allows short-term rentals throughout Plano without limits--further destroying the health, safety and quality of life of our neighborhoods.
The ordinance states that its intention is to collect data. A voluntary registration program is not the way to collect data. TNC Plano has repeatedly told this to City Council and provided examples of how this has gone wrong in other cities. (See Austin.) The only way to get accurate data about short-term rentals in Plano is for the City to pay for a third-party service to gather this information.
Regulation and registration must go hand and hand. The ordinance allows short-term rental operators to register now without the city first deciding where they may operate. This is EXACTLY what Airbnb and other STR companies want.
Short-term rentals in our residential neighborhoods is a zoning issue. The City of Plano completely bypassed the Planning and Zoning Commission with this ordinance. In fact, the ordinance is a defacto change to the city's current zoning ordinance. Under the Texas Local Government Code, zoning changes MUST be considered by Planning and Zoning before a city council can take up the issue.
At the Plano City Council meeting on Oct. 10, 2022, and in numerous meetings since then, the City told TNC Plano they want to follow how Arlington implemented their short-term rental ordinance. Starting with an STR registration program is not what Arlington did.
Here is what the City of Arlington did and what TNC Plano has requested of the City of Plano--in this order:
1. Hire a third-party data collection firm to determine all the short-term rentals operating in Plano.
2. Conduct town hall meetings and other ways of collecting citizen sentiment about short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods.
3. Update the City of Plano zoning ordinance to clarify where short-term rentals can and cannot operate.
4. Create a registration program to monitor short-term rentals where they are permitted and to prohibit them in districts where they are not allowed, such as single-family residential neighborhoods.
TNC Plano is calling on the citizens of Plano to tell your city council member to VOTE NO to this registration ordinance.
Three ways that you can help:
1. Come to the Monday night city council meeting to show your support for our speakers. Let us know you will attend.
2. Sign up with the City of Plano to speak during the meeting to voice your opposition.
3. Call and email your city council member to voice your opposition to this ordinance. You also can email councilcomments@plano.gov.