The Colorado Springs Gazette: New Airbnb regulations in Colorado Springs uphold property rights

The Colorado Springs Gazette: New Airbnb regulations in Colorado Springs uphold property rights

• The Gazette Editorial Board
• Dec 9, 2019 Updated 2 hrs ago

A home is not a motel; a motel is not a home. Or, so it used to be.

The rise of Airbnb and other short-term rental apps has blurred the distinction and given new meaning to “disruptive” technology. Neighbors complain these rentals disrupt neighborhoods.

For that reason, the Colorado Springs City Council voted 5-4 Thursday to impose strict new regulations on short-term rentals. It was a fair and reasonable move in favor of property rights.

The Gazette seldom applauds additional regulation of free-market activities. Circumstances arise, however, when the government must uphold the constitutional right to peaceful enjoyment of private property. This is one such occasion.

A buyer who invests hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in a house does not typically choose one a few feet from a motel that attracts revolving doors of residents with no stake in the neighborhood. They buy in zones established by government to preserve the common interests of residential occupancy by property owners or tenants. They buy near other people with skin in the game and the government protects their most reasonable expectations.

In residential neighborhoods, people get to know each other. They know who to trust and who to watch. They typically know if someone nearby is a registered sex offender or burglar. Residential zoning provides the stability needed for people to invest enormous amounts of money in places to call home.

Airbnbs and other short-term rentals put veritable motels smack in the middle of residential neighborhoods. They provide a loophole around zoning because short-term rentals are not called motels. With the same ease one can summon an Uber, travelers book houses in neighborhoods never intended for transient populations.

Typically, these arrangements cause no harm. Occasionally, a short-term rental becomes Animal House for days, a week or more. Permanent residents awaken to loud parties and beer bottles strewn by rude visitors with no long-term interest in the community. A Halloween party in a California Airbnb this year led to the deadly shooting of five people, causing neighborhood residents to run for their lives.

Aside from raucous parties, residents near short-term rentals complain of growing traffic, parking and safety concerns.

When the Airbnb trend launched, it did not cause significant problems. The movement began with travelers renting finished basements, extra rooms, or in-law cottages of owner-occupied homes.

More recently, investors have bought homes with the sole intent of renting them out all year like motels. The owners don’t live there to manage the occasional bachelor-party-gone-wild. Additionally, commercializing homes reduces the supply of permanent housing. It prices more prospective homeowners and long-term renters out of the market.

The city’s new regulations should help restore the original nature of the short-term rental trend. The rules classify as “nonowner occupied” any short-term rental the owner lives in for less than 185 days a year. The regulations forbid nonowner-occupied short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. In nonresidential zones, they must be separated from other properties by at least 500 feet. They will be regulated much like hotels, motels and resorts.

The new law protects the investments of those who own nonowner-occupied short-term rentals. They will be grandfathered and allowed to continue if they register each year before an expiration date. That means they face no new competition. These owners should consider themselves fortunate and carefully manage their properties to avoid neighborhood pressure for additional regulation or denial of registration renewals.

Property rights mean little if the government neglects to protect the peaceful enjoyment of an investment. Five council members got this right. They crafted a fair law to protect and defend the competing rights of property owners.