ST. CHARLES — Less than a year after tightening rules for short-term housing rentals in residential areas, the St. Charles City Council has imposed a one-year moratorium on allowing any new ones.
The council’s 8-2 vote on Tuesday night for a freeze on any additional units spurred differing reactions in a community that draws a steady stream of tourists.
“They need to put a stop to this,” said a supporter of the council’s move, Judy Kelch, who has lived a few blocks from Lindenwood University for 38 years and likes the tight-knit nature of the area.
“We love the atmosphere and history of this old neighborhood. We want to keep it that way.”
She and her husband also worry that allowing more and more units catering to tourists will hurt property values of homes owned by longtime residents.
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But Ashley Cary, who with her husband offers short-term rentals in the basement of their own home and in another house they own, called the council’s move “quite infuriating.”
“It sounds like a complete overreach of government,” she said.
Cary argued that short-term rentals are often among the best-maintained homes in a neighborhood because of owners’ need to attract customers.
“You want to get good ratings” on websites aimed at vacationers such as Airbnb, she said. “You want people to come back.”
She said she and her husband had rehabbed a condemned house in the Frenchtown neighborhood into “literally the nicest on the block.”
She said she was considering fixing up a duplex for use as another short-term rental, but not after the council’s vote.
The moratorium’s sponsor, Councilwoman Mary West, said in an interview that she is responding to residents “and they’re saying we have enough.”
“And most of the people I talk to don’t want one next to their homes,” she added.
Since the new regulations went into effect last August, the council has approved about 70 of the 80 or so applications submitted for short-term rental property permits. They are required for rentals of 30 days or less.
The one-year moratorium, set to begin June 17, will give the city “time to evaluate the potential effects” of the rentals already approved, West’s resolution says.
Since August, each application has to be aired at a public hearing and requires council approval. In the past, that wasn’t required.
“The neighbors aren’t just given a courtesy notification, they’re allowed and invited to make public comments,” said Community Development Director Zach Tusinger, whose agency oversees the process.
The rules also set up a 500-foot buffer between new short-term rental properties and new noise and off-street parking requirements. Annual safety inspections also are required. Moreover, they established a maximum on the number of short-term rental units within the city’s residential areas — no more than 0.5% of St. Charles’ total housing units in the most recent census. The current cap is 158, Tusinger said.
So far, Tusinger said, most of the permits sought have been in the city’s older neighborhoods in closer proximity to the tourist draw — Main Street.
The moratorium doesn’t apply to new short-term rentals in areas with commercial zoning in and near the Main Street historic area. Such facilities also haven’t required public hearings and council approval.
Short-term rentals have become an issue in various cities across the country.
In the small town of Augusta, in St. Charles County, officials earlier this year set a limit on the number of short-term units allowed. All 15 spots are filled, Zoning Commissioner Bryan Cavanaugh said. In early 2022 the town board temporarily stopped approving new short-term rentals out of concern that out-of-town buyers would snap up properties in Augusta, hoping to cash in on the Hoffmann Family of Companies’ plan to turn the Missouri wine country into a national vacation destination.
In St. Louis, the city planning commission earlier this month endorsed proposed zoning changes that would require operators of short-term rentals to obtain a permit every year and a business license for those who operate rentals but don’t live in them.
St. Louis is one of the few municipalities in this region without any regulations for such facilities, some of which have been in the news because of violence and other public safety issues.
In one incident, a teenage boy was killed last year while letting people into a party hosted at a rental in downtown St. Louis.
In St. Charles, officials say, violent crime hasn’t been a problem with short-term rentals.
Tusinger said most such properties are held by local residents but that two St. Louis area-based companies also are in the market.
The operator of one of them, Jeffrey Lage of St. Charles, said allowing short-term rentals is good for the city. “What it does is it encourages development and tourism,” he said.
He said most of the 39 units his firm operates in St. Charles are in commercial areas and only four are in residential neighborhoods affected by the moratorium. He said his company also manages some short-term rentals for other owners, such as Cary and her husband.
Before the council voted Tuesday for the one-year moratorium, it rejected a permit sought for a new short-term rental at a home on Lindenwood Avenue after the Kelches and several other nearby residents spoke against it.
“I know every neighbor on both sides of my street, on my block,” said one opponent, Mike Louis. “That is what makes the fabric of our neighborhood.”
Matthew Stevens, who with his brother sought the permit, said the two grew up in St. Charles. “We are not a hotel,” he said. “We are a family trying to have a small business and invest in a city that we love.”
Joseph McCulloch speaks on his background and priorities as St. Charles County prosecutor.
