Renting on Airbnb? Evanston May Require Permit

Have you ever considered renting your home on Airbnb or other short-term rental sites? 

In the future, Evanston residents who want to do so may need a permit from the city.   

At a city council meeting Monday, Evanston aldermen considered an ordinance that would regulate short-term rentals as B&Bs and require short-term rental operators to apply for a special use permit. The ordinance defines a vacation rental as renting an entire dwelling unit or portion of that unit for less than 30 consecutive days to someone who is not a member of the owner's family. 

Earlier: Are Your Neighbors Renting Homes on Airbnb?

If the ordinance is approved as is, anyone wanting to rent their home for vacation stays would have to apply to the city’s zoning board of appeals for a special use permit, which would then be approved by the city council. Short-term rental operators could then be issued citations if they did not abide by city code regulating B&Bs.

Members of the planning and development committee decided to send the ordinance back to the city’s legal department for one final draft, but reacted favorably to the proposed ordinance overall.

“I think there are at least a handful of exceptions that should probably be brought into this,” said Ald. Don Wilson (4th Ward). He and other committee members suggested that the city should add an exemption for homeowners renting while their home was up for sale and for homeowners renting to neighbors in hardship.

The issue of short-term rentals first came to the city’s attention last fall, after a group of concerned Evanston homeowners started a petition asking city officials to take action. Many of them were motivated by one short-term rental on Ashland that is advertised on Craigslist and Airbnb, and which neighbors say has caused problems with streams of people coming in and out on football weekends. They argued that short-term rentals could bring down property values in a neighborhood and could present a safety concern with unknown guests coming in and out.

Evanston’s planning and development committee discussed the issue at six separate meetings between September and April, hearing from dozens of people who opposed or supported the creation of regulation surrounding vacation rentals.

Only a handful of people spoke at Monday night’s city council meeting. Kim Novi, a resident of Ashland Avenue who was one of the organizers of the petition opposing vacation rentals, said she was mostly satisfied with the proposed ordinance.

“This seems to address most of our concerns,” she said. “We feel that we’ve been heard.”

Novi said she would like to see the ordinance require owners to occupy the unit they are renting (it currently does not), in case of emergencies like a broken water pipe. She also said the ordinance still did not solve the acute problem of the home on Ashland Avenue.

“What does that mean you will do with respect to 2515 Ashland?” she said. “That still remains my question.”

Speaking on behalf of the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors, Mary Rosinski said she believed it was very important that a revised version of the ordinance include an exemption for homeowners whose properties are up for sale.

“I feel concerned that we would be passing an ordinance that impacts every homeowner in this city at some point in their life,” she said. “I don’t think you want to put an additional burden on top of their transfer tax stamps.”

City manager Wally Bobkiewicz said staff would look at the ordinance and return it to the planning and development committee for a vote in two weeks, at their next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 28.