Annapolis City Council passes bill regulating Airbnbs, other short-term rentals

The Annapolis City Council passed a bill regulating short-term rental properties Monday, ending months of debate around the legislation.

The final vote was 6-1 in favor of the legislation, which requires anyone hoping to rent their property on platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway and others to apply for a license.

The bill’s co-sponsors Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson, D-Ward 4 and Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8, as well as Mayor Gavin Buckley, Alderman Fred Paone, R-Ward 2, Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles, D-Ward 3 and Alderman DaJuan Gay all voted in favor of O-26-19.

“I am pleased with what we did. It may not be perfect but we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Finlayson said. “We had a lot of input from both sides. … We did our best. With the guidance from the law department, we came up with what we thought would work best at this point.”

Alderman Rob Savidge, Ward-7, was the lone nay vote.

The discussion around the legislation was acrimonious at times with residents and property owners, some of whom rent their entire homes and others who only offer a guest room, attending City Council meetings in droves to testify on the bill. That public input seemingly had some effect on the bill over time as nearly 30 amendments were adopted, some of which changed the intent of the legislation so much that a second public hearing was held.

“The unfortunate thing is it got really ugly and it didn’t need to,” Finlayson said. “Unfortunately, we were going to have some people who were happy and some people who were not.”

Alderwoman Elly Tierney, Ward 1, is recused from the legislative process around the bill because she owns a bed and breakfast in the Historic District. In an email Sunday, Tierney indicated that she plans to put the bed and breakfast on the market “by the end of the month.”

She hasn’t put her business on the market yet but plans to continue to operate it until she sells, Tierney said. After a discussion with the Annapolis Ethics Commission, they indicated Tierney must remain recused until after the property sells because it could still be considered a conflict of interest.

“That’s somewhat ridiculous, you can quote me on that,” Tierney said, adding that she plans to commit “110%” to protecting the Historic District by introducing legislation specific to Ward 1.

“I want to introduce legislation to protect the Historic District from the infiltration of non-owner occupied short-term rentals that are acting as a commercial business in a residential district,” Tierney said. “Zoning codes have failed my neighborhood.”

Savidge is the only other member of the council that has expressed concern about the high number of short-term rentals currently operating in the city, particularly in Ward 1’s Historic District, Tierney said.

Savidge said he plans to immediately introduce a bill that would put a moratorium on issuing new licenses while the city irons out the zoning code.

Another bill in the works would lower the age to apply for a license from 21 to 18. Gay, D-Ward 6, had initially introduced an amendment to O-26-19 to accomplish this but it was mistakenly excluded during the legislative process.

Pindell Charles had been mulling how she would vote on the bill as late as Saturday but after issuing a yes vote Monday, assured those in attendance that this was not the end of legislative process around short-term rentals.

“We did not ignore you. We heard your concerns and will take them into consideration moving forward,” Pindell Charles said. “We want to refine it even more to accommodate people.”

Finlayson said she was open to future legislation that would refine the bill.

“I am very open because we want people to be satisfied and comfortable with what we do,” Finlayson said. “It was a complicated issue and it still is. Everybody is dealing with this around the country, we are not alone.”