One of three short-term rental rules fails to pass in Columbia council vote

After the Columbia City Council set some rules on short-term rentals in February, such as those listed on Airbnb or Vrbo, there still were some modifications needed to city ordinances. They were mostly finalized Monday.

Unified Development Code rules updated in February and other rules approved Monday night all go into effect June 1, said Becky Thompson, Housing and Neighborhood Services director. Those currently operating a short-term rental from their home, a secondary residence or some other dwelling unit have a year in which to comply with the updated rules.

"The amendments before you tonight are changes that are needed to other sections of the code in order to implement those requirements," Thompson said prior to council votes, noting this relates to business licenses, certificates of compliance and adding short-term rentals to a definition of hotel, motel and tourist core for taxation purposes.

One rule that did not pass was establishing business license regulations and guest lodging taxes for short-term rentals after a 3-1 vote, with Ward 2 council member Lisa Meyer voting against. Ward 6 council member Betsy Peters abstained from voting since she operates a short-term rental and the Ward 1 seat currently is vacant. Ordinances need four approval votes to pass.

The rules that did pass with four votes were those on the rental conservation law (certificates of compliance related to rental conditions and inspections) and updating definitions from what was approved in February for consistency.

Mayor Barbara Buffaloe, after the votes, said that questions she now has on what the one failing vote does to other parts of the ordinance needs further exploration.

Work already is underway to provide information to the public on the rule changes, including updates to the BeHeardCoMo website, said Patrick Zenner, development services manager, prior to the council vote. Information will be provided through the Nextdoor mobile application and to the various neighborhood associations in the city, he added.

"We are in the final stretch of completing the application form itself. There have been setbacks as it relates to getting the integration we would like with our citizen self-service portal in order to connect all of the parts," Zenner said, adding Planning and Development, Office of Neighborhood Services and the Finance Department are manually connected for the time being until the vendor can automatically combine all application aspects to one place.

Applications will follow the regular planning and zoning calendar, if a conditional-use permit is required. Planning and Development will review applications if a CUP is not needed.

"Depending on the volume we receive, we may have to spread meetings over, call special meetings in order to move applications through so they are processed accordingly. There are a lot of things we still don't know because we don't know what the volume will be initially," Zenner said.

The city also is in the process of vetting vendors who will monitor booking sites for the city after full rule implementation June 1, 2025. This will allow the city to compare listings against licenses, Zenner said before the council vote.

If a person is not in compliance after the first year, the city then may have to take an enforcement action, he added. The vendor also could help determine if a person is remitting the necessary lodging taxes to the city, Zenner said prior to council votes. Meyer had voiced legal implication concerns relating to the taxing verification before her no vote.

The council in other old business approved a question for the Aug. 6 ballot to extend a 1/4-cent capital improvement sales tax for another 10 years related to public works and public safety projects. An amendment was added to the Sidewalk Master Plan to add projects in the area of the Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 63 connector and Mills Drive.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How the Columbia council voted on final short-term rental rule updates