After quite a long time (over a year?) of debating different paths for regulating short term rentals (such as through airBNB) the City of Harrisonburg has finally made a decision and set forth their official regulations.
Lots (and lots) of information is can be found
here, but let's review some of the key points to remember:
- A short term rental can be a part (bedroom, etc.) or all of a home
- To operate a Short Term Rental in the City of Harrisonburg you must...
- Have a Special Use Permit
- Have a Short-Term Rental Operator Registration
- Have a Business License
- Register for Transient Occupancy and State Sales Tax
- Comply with the full regulations in the City's Zoning Ordinance and Tax Code.
- If you operate a Short Term Rental without the approvals listed above, you will receive a violation notice with a $100 penalty for the first offense, and a $500 penalty for any subsequent offense. There is a grace period until August 1, 2019.
- It will cost approximately $425 (one time) for your special use permit application, $50 per year for the Short-Term Rental Operator Registration, and $0 per year for the Business License so long as you bring in less than $10K per year.
- Short Term Rentals can be operated in any zoning district, if a Special Use Permit has been approved.
- The home does not have to be the operator's primary residence and the operator does not have to be home during the lodging period.
- There is not a limit to the number of bedrooms that can be rented, how many guests can rent the space, how many consecutive nights the dwelling can be rented, or the total number of nights per year that the dwelling can be rented.
- Operators must provide on off-street vehicle parking space for each bedroom or accommodation space.
- Any of the above requirements (or non-requirements) can be changed on a per-property basis through the Special Use Permit approval process.
Again, you can find much more information
here as well as links to additional information to get you started with registering your Short Term Rental.
One interesting part of this new requirement is that we're now seeing somewhat more clearly where these Short Term Rentals are being operated. These are the property owners that have applied for Special Use Permits thus far, with a public hearing on each of them scheduled for May 8, 2019. The packet of information with context for these five applications, and staff recommendations is
here.
- 1451 Hillcrest Drive (staff recommends approval)
- 341 South Willow Street (staff recommends approval)
- 1110 Royal Court (staff recommends denial)
- 636 Wyndham Woods Circle (staff recommends denial)
- 981 Summit Avenue (staff recommends denial)
You can track public hearings
here.
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