Property owners operating with companies like AirBnb and Vrbo will now have to register their short-term rentals with Cleveland City Hall.
It's one of the new requirements approved by Cleveland City Council to restrict and manage the properties council members say have become problematic and, in some cases, dangerous.
"The owner-occupants around (short-term rentals) have to live their life on the whims of whatever person's moving in next door for the weekend," said Councilmember Kris Harsh at a Monday committee hearing. "And to me, that is an unacceptable standard for us to tell Cleveland residents that they must accept."
City Hall will revoke the license of any property with three or more nuisance incidents over a year but can take immediate action after one case of disorderly conduct, assault or weapons violations.
The law also limits density: no more than 10% of a residential block of multi-unit building may be made up of short-term rentals. That equates to about three to six houses per street, Councilmember Jasmin Santana said.
Airbnb and Vrbo policies prohibit large and disruptive parties and requires hosts to follow city laws. But it's clear, council members said, those rules are not being followed.
Dave Stokley, who owns a short-term rental management company, rejects that "party house" characterization.
"We host families for funerals who wanna be together under one roof, not scattered across hotel rooms. We host parents coming to the Cleveland Clinic for children who are having surgery and need two weeks, some are comfortable with a kitchen and space for a caregiver. We host Cleveland residents whose pipes froze in January or whose houses burned down, and they need somewhere to go for a couple nights or a couple weeks," Stokely said at a Monday committee hearing. "These are the people you're regulating, forcing them into uncomfortable hotel situations and sending their dollars to international hotel chains instead of local property owners and local restaurants."
When asked whether he lived in Cleveland, Stokely said he did not.
Santana said the law, which has been years in the making, has already been amended significantly in response to input from residents and business owners like Stokely. She said she's willing to make further changes after seeing how the legislation plays out over the next year.
"We are going to give this legislation a chance," said Councilmember Mike Polensek. "But I want to say to the party houses and to the animal houses, it's over. We're not having this crap going on."
Some council members are worried about the city's enforcement capacity, but Santana said it's a good "starting point," pointing to other cities in the state and region that have already implemented similar regulations.
"This is the definition of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good," Harsh said. "There's still some things in here that I would like to see changed, but I think that this, again, is a good compromise piece."
