From the August 3, 2018 City Council District 9 Newsletter:
Council is back in session and it's great to be back! One of the issues we'll be talking about at length this session is short term rentals. Residents in San Antonio are using services like Airbnb to rent out part or all of their property to visitors for a short period of time. No City ordinance currently exists to assist in the standardization of this activity.
A proposed ordinance, which is largely designed to hold property owners accountable to provide a safe and up-to-code site for their potential tenants, currently breaks these properties out into two types.
Type 1 - Owner Occupied, and Type 2 - Owner Absent
A growing number of District 9 residents have voiced their concern to my office over the proposed "Type 2" classification, based on the idea that these properties would effectively serve as small hotels in our neighborhoods. I also share some of these concerns. These properties would serve a vastly different function than Type 1, which could simply include a retiree who wants to earn a bit of extra income by renting out a single room. The integrity of our neighborhoods is vital to the success of our community.
How do you feel about short term rentals? Should we be adding anything to this discussion? Reply to this email [district9@sanantonio.gov] and let us know.
Yours in service,
John Courage
Councilman, District 9
[Note: The Springs HOA's CCRs currently do not prohibit short term rentals (i.e., 30 days or less). Our CCRs (Article III - Use) use the same generic verbiage on use of residences as the verbiage in the CCRs of the neighboring Timberwood HOA, which recently lost a court case on prohibiting short term residences because the judge found that the CCR wording, "All Lots in the Subdivision shall be used for single family residential purposes only," allows short term rentals to be an allowable "single family residential purpose."]
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