For years, many Atlanta residents have complained about "Airbnb party houses" popping up throughout the city. The popular home-sharing platform has faced nationwide backlash following several instances of users booking homes on the platform, just to throw parties.
Last year, Atlanta City Council passed a "party house ordinance," which banned commercial events (i.e. parties, ceremonies, receptions or similar large-scale gatherings) in all residential neighborhoods.
On Monday, the council took an additional step to rectify this issue.
Ordinance (20-O-1656), which passed by a 13 - 1 vote, will require all short term rental operators to purchase an $150 rental license with the city every year. Citizens who are found renting their property out short-term, without a license, will be issued a fine of $500. This ordinance goes into effect on Sept. 1.
The ordinance was authored by Councilman Andre Dickens, who's spent the last five months working with Airbnb operators, neighborhood planning units, and other city council members to draft legislation that brings regulations to the short term rental industry, without completely banning them in Atlanta.
For several different reasons, many residents will not be happy with the passing of this bill. This includes Howard Shook, who was the only council member to vote 'no' on it.
Mr. Shook brought several amendments for the bill to Monday's council meeting, and most of them were shot down. He was not happy about it.
"I'm sticking up for my constituents," he exclaimed at the meeting. "What we did here today has no limitations. So all the people who are freighted to live next to these party houses; not only is that going to continue but there might be one on the other side, there might be one across the street!"
Shook attempted to tack on several additional regulations to the proposed legislation, including limiting the number of permitted guest to six during the day and zero at night. He also wanted to place limits on the number of short term rentals that could operate within a certain radius of each other. Both of these were voted down by council.
Shook was able to get most of council on board with increasing the violation penalty from $300 to $500, which passed 12 - 2, as well as, requiring the city to establish a public portal for citizens to submit questions and complaints, which passed unanimously.
To learn more about the new short term rental ordinance, check out the latest episode of our Atlanta politics podcast, A-Political: