A vote to formalize harsher safety regulations for operators of short-term rental properties situated in commercially zoned zones across the city was postponed by the Portland City Council on Wednesday.
Perhaps 200 to 300 single-family homes and duplexes close to Portland’s main business avenues that investors have been buying and turning into short-term rentals would be subject to the regulations.
That is only a small portion of the 2,600 Portland short-term rental properties that are listed on Airbnb, the industry leader in short-term rentals. The city has been working to control unpermitted and other illegal listings for the past ten years, although only a portion of those are included in that category.
But as investors, rather than private homeowners, have been more active in the market and are acquiring houses and turning them into full-time holiday rentals, Portland, like other cities, is aiming to tighten laws in this way.
Council members were informed by city officials on Wednesday that enforcement efforts, which have been at best mediocre thus far, needed to adapt to the market.
The initial model, which centered on homeowners renting out a room in their house, changed to include homeowners remodeling their garages or basements to create supplementary living units. According to Donnie Oliveira, the administrator in charge of Portland’s revenue and permitting agencies under the city’s new system of governance, the city wholeheartedly backed that. However, there are a lot more strategic businesses operating on a much bigger scale these days. We’re catching up to a municipal enterprise that is always changing and iterating.
The units in question are not subject to city regulations that, in theory, require a permanent resident to remain there three quarters of the year because they are in commercial zones rather than residential ones. However, the city does require short-term rental conversions in commercial districts to make costly safety upgrades including egress windows, sprinkler systems, and fire wall separations as well as get a change in occupancy permit.
Apparently, those standards have existed for a while. However, they have not been applied uniformly, and they have been successfully appealed in certain situations. The city now claims that the local rule is necessary because it can no longer rely on the state building codes to enforce the upgrade requirements due to a change in 2023.
Commissioners were informed on Wednesday by city officials, a city fire marshal, and hotel operators that short-term rentals should be subject to the same safety regulations as hotels since they function similarly to year-round lodging establishments.
Makenzie Marineau, a lobbyist for the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, told the council that this rule is an essential step in guaranteeing the ongoing safety, equity, and consistency within Portland’s hospitality sector. The same standards that hotels have devoted their lives to upholding should apply to short-term rentals and other types of lodging.
However, one of the biggest providers of short-term rentals in the city argued that the rules would be burdensome and unjust.
The owner of almost 200 Portland short-term rentals, Hayden Laverty, and a procession of his staff pleaded with the City Council to reject the regulations.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s October article on the city’s larger battles to control short-term rentals on websites like Airbnb featured Laverty’s firm.
Laverty made the case to the City Council that it is unfair to require sprinklers and other costly safety improvements in single-family homes and duplexes in commercially zoned areas since the city does not require them in residential districts, the state building code has never required them, and they are not required anywhere else.
He informed the council that this is a requirement for a single-family home or duplex nowhere else in the nation.
He further argued that Portland officials are misclassifying short-term rental firms as either residential or commercial. Officials admit that the requirement that short-term rentals in residentially zoned districts have a permanent resident 270 days a year has never been enforced. Whole house listings make up about 86% of Airbnb’s listings.
Permitting staff changed the goal two years ago to start mandating sprinklers in all rentals in commercially designated districts, according to Laverty, an early pioneer of running short-term rentals in commercially classified regions.
He added that 100 of his units had already been approved under the current regulations, saying, “I’ve been fighting it ever since.”
In their testimony, some of Laverty’s staff members, including his brother and business partner, implied that the expenses of the safety improvements would jeopardize the company’s ability to continue operating as well as the jobs that his company and other suppliers offer.
One worker, Maricruz Mandujano, spoke to the council. She said that working for Laverty’s company had helped her get her life in order financially and that she is a single mother of six children.
In addition to supporting my family, Hayden’s business has helped me end the cycle of poverty and instill in my kids the importance of community and hard work, she added. For me and countless others who rely on businesses like mine to thrive, these restrictions have the potential to take it away.
A number of council members questioned the necessity of revising the rules. According to Oliveira, the city needed to specifically address the safety needs at the municipal level because the state introduced new language in 2023 that exempted short-term rentals from regulation under the state building code.
Following an hour and a half of back and forth, Commissioner Rene Gonzalez and Mayor Ted Wheeler stated that they needed to postpone a decision until the following week because they had additional questions.
I’m going to err on the side of safety. Wheeler stated, “I’ll err on the side of consistency.” However, I’m prepared to give some of the opposing viewpoints that we heard today some thought over the course of a week. Although I agree with the staff’s proposal, I’m willing to look into it more and work with my colleagues to learn more.
-One of the reporters on the investigative team is Ted Sickinger. 503-221-8505, [email protected], or tedsickinger are his contact details.
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