Neighbors seeing more short term rentals like Airbnb, Vrbo around KC are pushing back
Between introductions and pleasantries, neighbors in the West Plaza area of Kansas City sounded off at a recent neighborhood association meeting about what they deem the “short term rental issue.”
The group gathered in a bare conference room in Immanuel Lutheran Church on Westport Road and lamented a feeling of loss as more of the neighborhood’s housing stock consists of homes being used full time for visitors staying in short stints.
“What benefit do short term rentals have in our community?” one West Plaza resident asked the group. “I don’t think there is a benefit,” someone else responded.
The goal of the meeting was to create an ad hoc committee to develop a neighborhood response to short term rentals, which are offered on booking sites like Airbnb, Vrbo and HomeAway.
According to the market monitoring site AirDNA, the number of active short term rentals in Kansas City increased this year by more than 40% in the months of July through September compared with the same months last year.
Although they offer a unique opportunity for visitors and tourists to experience the city, the proliferation of short term rentals has been a sore point for residents who feel the home sharing trend can be disruptive to neighborhoods while going largely unchecked by the city.
Nearly 70 people recently filled a town hall meeting hosted by 4th District City Councilman Eric Bunch about addressing the issue of short term rentals.
Meanwhile, the city auditor’s office is in the process of reviewing Kansas City’s program to regulate these rentals, and the findings are expected some time this month.
Regulating short term rentals in Kansas City
The city’s ordinance that now permits short term rentals was passed in 2018, but it’s estimated that only a fraction of rentals are registered in the city program.
This year there are 202 active short term rentals registered with the city, even though there are around 1,996 active listings for the Kansas City area, according to AirDNA.
Lead City Planner Joseph Rexwinkle, who oversees the short term rental program, said his department is fielding 15 to 30 complaints about short term rentals every week from residents.
There are two main types of complaints, Rexwinkle said: residents who are concerned with rowdy tenants, and residents who are concerned about the increasing number of short term rentals on their block.
At the West Plaza meeting, the group of concerned neighbors, who were predominantly homeowners, agreed that the current regulation was not working well.
Some said they want to see a limit to how many can operate in each neighborhood, and others said they want to see them eliminated entirely.
At the town hall, Councilman Bunch said it’s clear that short term rentals can have a negative impact on residents.
Victoria Rojas, a Volker resident who attended the meeting, said that she feels like corporate and out-of-state buyers have turned her neighborhood into a hotel district.
“It’s so disrespectful because they know that the city can’t do anything about it,” Rojas said.
Anti-short term rental movement mobilizes online
Calls to better regulate short term rentals extend beyond the West Plaza committee and the 4th District meeting: Kansas Citians are also organizing on social media.
“Neighbors Opposed to Short Term Rentals in our KC community’‘ or “NO-STR” Facebook group began in July as a landing place for neighbors frustrated with short term rentals in Kansas City.
West Plaza resident Sharon Pendleton, an 84-year-old who has lived in West Plaza for 16 years, created the group alongside a few other residents who felt that young neighbors were being priced out by new short term rentals owned by out-of-state investors.
The group is made up of about 75 people and is very active, sharing information about the harm that short term rentals can cause.
“PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS PROBLEM so that you do not wake up next to one,” Pendleton commented on one post.
For Pendleton, the issue is about affordability, local ownership and preserving the fabric of her West Plaza community.
A 2021 study from Carnegie Mellon University showed that the presence of short term rentals in a community caused a reduction in rental supply, especially among affordable units. The study also found that an increase in short term rentals may benefit lower income landlords.
“It’s really terrible,” Pendleton said. “This sudden vacating of rental properties in the West Plaza area is economically devastating for an area like this.”
What are the consequences for disruptive rentals?
In Kansas City, there aren’t many consequences for short term rental operators who are disruptive or unregistered. Some penalties include a revoked permit, and fees for rentals in violation of the ordinance start at $150, plus $45 in court costs and $250 for repeat offenders.
Some neighbors have proposed that the city raise those fees, but it’s not that simple. Fees for city code violations have a cap that is set by the state.
In order to raise the fee for breaking the short term rental ordinance, the state legislature would have to agree to remove or change that cap, according to Kansas City’s City Planning Director Jeffrey Williams.
Enforcement of city codes also rely largely on complaints from neighbors and the two code enforcers in Rexwinkle’s office, who are also responsible for investigating code violations beyond just short term rentals. He said his office is looking to hire more people, but that improving enforcement may rely on collaborating more with other city departments like fire and police.
Williams added that simply raising the $295 fee to get licensed for a short term rental is not straightforward either, because of a state law that limits how much a local government can tax and spend.
Cities like Miami, Santa Monica, Calif., and New York City have cracked down on the home sharing market.
In Santa Monica, short term rental hosts cannot rent out an entire home for less than 29 days. Hosts can only rent individual rooms, must be present on site and can only have one active listing at a time, according to the city’s ordinance.
In 2017, the city went a step further and required platforms to remove unlicensed listings from their site entirely. The new rule, which was challenged in court by both Airbnb and HomeAway, reduced Santa Monica’s short term rental listings by 80%, Forbes reported.
The city also collects $2 a day, per listing, to go toward affordable housing efforts.
How to permit a short term rental in Kansas City
There are two types of short term rental permits in Kansas City.
One is for people who live in the rental unit full time, and another is for properties that the hosts don’t live in full time. Potential hosts can apply for either permit by visiting the Compass KC system, where they can fill out and submit the application for review.
A part of this approval process for short term rental applications is notifying all of the adjacent neighbors and the local neighborhood association that there will be a short term rental nearby. The applicant is supposed to provide them with a description of the rental, the number of guests that could be occupying the residence and the city’s regulations regarding short term rentals.
All short term rental units are supposed to go through this screening process and have this permit to operate. Aside from approvals and permits, there are rules that each host needs to abide by in order to keep their short term rental:
The unit can’t be in an accessory structure. It must be in the main building on the property.
There can be no more than eight guests at a time.
There can be no more than two guests per bedroom, plus one extra person per dwelling.
The space can’t be rented as a party space, meeting space or reception space or any other event that’s open to non-resident guests.
No food service can be provided by the host.
The short-term rental permit issued by the city must be on display inside the unit.
There can be no signs or evidence outside the unit that the property is being used as a short term rental.
Neighbors in West Plaza said that based on their experiences, the permitting process isn’t working how it was intended to. Some are worried that rental owners are cutting corners by forging neighbor signatures or applying for special use permits to avoid the short term rental permit process altogether.
There has been at least one incident of forging signatures for a short term rental permit, according to Rexwinkle. In that instance, the permit was revoked, but no further action was taken against the short term rental host.
“The City’s short-term rental process has created this disaster and the City must end it,” West Plaza resident Anne Johnston said in an email.
So what’s the city’s plan for short term rentals?
The city’s auditor is currently looking at listing data, 311 complaints, the city’s permitting process and sales tax and room night data to assess how short term rentals are currently functioning in the city, according to the auditor’s scope statement.
The report — which will look at how well the regulations are working and how city tourism taxes are affected — is set to come out this month. Short term rental hosts are not obligated to pay taxes in the same way that hotels and other spaces for tourists are.
The city will also be releasing a survey in coming weeks for Kansas Citians to share their feedback on how to improve short-term rental regulations in Kansas City.
Councilman Bunch said he thinks the city should consider a moratorium on short term rentals, limit the number of rentals that one individual can own and make sure that housing projects that receive city tax incentives do not rent out rooms as short term rentals..
In the meantime, people who have complaints regarding short term rentals can reach out to the city’s 311 hotline to file a complaint.
“The more information they can provide us on the event or whatever the rule was, they think was broken, the easier or better it is for us to enforce it,” Rexwinkle said
Residents can also use Compass KC to search the term ‘short term rental’ and see where permits have been issued in the city.