William Small: Annapolis has missed the chance to regulate short term rentals

Annapolis City Council members have drafted new regulations for all rentals, but they present to the public that it is about Short Term Rentals.

Bill O-26-19 has been couched to address various concerns, the biggest being fear of investors buying up Annapolis properties and being negligent hosts. But the best solution to the demand for short term rentals is more housing, and the best place to find that is in the many homes in Annapolis that are already second homes.

According to statistics, about 5% of local homes are second homes, but only 3% are STRs.

One claim made by the bill sponsors, Alderman Ross Arnett and Alderwoman Shelia Finlayson, is there is a cost to the city in terms of managing STRs. We already pay a property tax, and Anne Arundel County plans to add a 7% tax to short-term rentals.

This double tax contribution is a good reason residents should want more STRs in our county and city. The costs per STR are much less than the revenue. Short term rentals don’t send children to local schools, but 50% of the property tax goes to the Board of Education to educate local children. In other words, more STRs means more money going into county coffers for each student, and more for local services.

The bill sponsors also claim residents support this bill. However, at council meetings I have attended, the two clear supporters were lobbyists from Expedia and the hotel lobby. Expedia owns HomeAway and VRBO, which offers hotels, BnB and houses that rent for $300+ a night. Those businesses want to eliminate housing in private homes that rent for $50 a night to raise demand for higher-priced units.

I say let the market decide the prices. O-26-19 would protect big business interests above the citizens of Annapolis.

I was born in Annapolis and have lived here all my life. Annapolis has a long history of economic discrimination, and STRs help make it accessible to more people. For me, Annapolis is a life story where people see our merits as a community and strive to thrive together, like Mayor Gavin Buckley’s vision of One Annapolis.

O-26-19 makes up obstacles to our success which the county sees no need for in its own bill, including home inspections.

There are streets in Historic Annapolis where small houses, lack of yard space, high property taxes and low parking make the homes less attractive as primary residences. These properties are ideal second homes.

When their owners are not in town they can serve the city and their owners by augmenting available housing for visitors. Most owners love their homes and neighborhoods.

Short-term rentals provide overflow housing during peak times. During Annapolis Boat Shows and Naval Academy Commissioning Week and many other days, local hotels are filled to capacity. Short-term rentals have stepped in to fill this need, allowing time to discuss how and where another hotel might be built.

There is no good reason to disable viable housing options, and deprive citizens of important earnings, and create pressure for another expensive hotel, as O-26-19 would do.

The city missed in its attempt to regulate STR’s and Anne Arundel County has a better bill in 89-19. The City Council should vote O-26-19 down Monday and let the county regulate rentals.

We need working groups, as called for by Alderwoman Pindell-Charles, involving the public in a more congenial manner. We need to stick together, hold each other accountable to be good neighbors, and talk about what Annapolis means to us, and what we want to mean to visitors, and if or how we want our town to grow.

From understanding, we will find reasons to compromise.

William Small is the owner of HomePort Rentals, which manages short term rentals in the Annapolis area.