The Shawnee City Council has tabled a vote to consider new regulations on short-term room rentals in order to allow more time to clear up some of the proposed code’s language.
Why it matters: Shawnee has been in the process of developing new city code to regulate individual room rentals in single-family zoning districts, but during the city’s process to develop the regulations, a deadly shooting at a short-term rental property in Overland Park gave new impetus to the discussions.
Here’s how nine other Johnson County cities regulate short-term rentals within their boundaries.
Primary concerns raised by members of the Shawnee City Council on Monday included finding ways to restrict or ban short-term boarding and reduce transiency within single-family neighborhoods.
The city council ultimately agreed unanimously to table the discussion.
The way the proposed code language is drafted now could potentially:
- reduce the number of unrelated family members defined as a family from four to three,
- eliminate multiple individual room rentals in single-family zoning districts,
- and maintain the ability for homeowners to lease one room to an outside boarder.
The new zoning code could also define a housekeeping unit to mean: “A group of non-transient persons that occupies a dwelling with common kitchen facilities and shares household activities or responsibilities.”
Shared group home arrangements — or transient living arrangements — would not meet this threshold.
In attempts to avoid confusion among residents, city leaders spent time Monday evening focusing on terminology and fleshing out the code language. Mayor Michelle Distler asked that the number of unrelated family members only count residents that are legal adults, and that minors 17 and younger be excluded from that number.
Other city leaders asked to replace the term “shared home group” with “co-living situation” or similar terms, and offer clear definitions for all terminology in the code language.
Next steps: The city council will review this item at a future meeting, but a date has not yet been determined.
A recording of the meeting is below and on the city’s website. Discussion begins at 4:29:19.
