One Johnson County city is the first — and possibly going to be the only — to loosen its guidelines for short-term rentals like Airbnbs and Vrbos ahead of World Cup 2026.
In an effort to allow residents to host visitors for World Cup matches in Kansas City, the Roeland Park City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved temporarily suspending neighbor notification requirements for short-term rentals operating between May 25 and July 31 of this year.
City staff plans to create a temporary, short-term rental license for the duration of the World Cup festivities in order to make this work — though all short-term rentals still need to meet licensing and safety requirements, according to city documents.
Additionally, the city approved permanent changes that prohibit using short-term rentals as party, event or reception spaces and require full compliance with existing parking regulations.
What other cities have done
While Roeland Park is loosening its short-term rental regulations for the World Cup, other Johnson County cities haven’t taken such steps, and in fact have largely tightened their restrictions over the past two years.
For example, the city of Prairie Village in 2024 banned short-term rentals. The city of Fairway added more restrictions, including a 1,000-foot buffer between short-term rentals.
Roeland Park’s short-term rental guidelines already require all short-term rentals to be owner-occupied.
Jennifer Jones-Lacy, the assistant city administrator, told the city council on Jan. 5 — during a governing body workshop meeting — that the city staff believes the owner-occupied requirement makes the city’s ordinance stricter than most.
Owner-occupied means the Roeland Park short-term rental is the primary residence of a resident, Jones-Lacy said. This means that the resident could be renting out part of their home or be out of town and renting out their entire home, she said.
Other cities like Overland Park, Olathe and Lenexa told the Post on Tuesday afternoon that they have no plans to loosen restrictions on short-term rental regulations at this time.
A look at the changes
The specific permanent changes, as outlined in city documents, are as follows:
- Short-term rentals cannot be used as party, event, meeting or reception spaces
- All short-term rentals must comply with existing parking regulations, meaning guests must use off-street parking like driveways when available
The sole temporary change is to remove the neighbor notification, which requires short-term rental owners to alert neighbors within 100 feet of a short-term rental license, between May 25 and July 31. The requirement will go back into effect on Aug. 1.
Because Roeland Park requires all short-term rentals to be owner-occupied, the city council also permanently removed language on the books that said owners or registered agents needed to live within 30 miles of their rental.
Next steps:
The city’s temporary neighbor notification suspension for short-term rentals applies to those rentals operating between May 25 and July 31.
The remaining changes to the short-term rental licensing ordinance are permanent, for later this year and beyond World Cup 2026.
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