STR Hearing Starts at 2pm Thursday

NOTE: THE CITY COUNCIL HEARING IS SET TO BEGIN AFTER 2 PM ON THURSDAY.

PLEASE COME IF YOU CAN AND WEAR RED.

NEIGHBORHOODS STR CALL TO ACTION

Neighbors:

We have an important update in the short term rental fight. We have learned that the Administration has proposed regulations that would dramatically undermine at the City Planning Commission’s recommendation to ban “whole-home” rentals in residential areas. To do so, there are talks that so-called “Temporary” short term rentals would be allowed for 120-days a year instead of the 30 days proposed by the Planning Commission and the 15 days our coalition supports.

The Administration proposal also allows whole home short term rentals without restriction in mixed-use and commercial areas and allows short term rentals in the French Quarter where new hotel rooms have been banned since 1969 and in areas where new bed and breakfasts are currently prohibited.

So we are sending to you the following Call to Action and email and phone call scripts and talking points as well as the request for you and your neighbors who are able to attend the October 20th City Council Meeting. We need as many New Orleanians as possible to call and email council offices and the Mayor’s office, and to attend the Council meeting. Please note below in this email and attached are sample phone and email scripts.

For more information and to officially sign on to the coalition, please go to https://nolaneighbors.com/.

CALL TO ACTION

The City Council is moving forward with legislation to properly govern and tax short term rentals. We have reached a critical time where the Council and Mayor need to hear the voices of our communities across the entire city.

Immediately send an e-mail to the City Council at the e-mail addresses listed below. The subject line should read “Short Term Rentals.”
Call each Councilmember’s office and the Mayor’s office. The information below also includes a template you may use as speaking points. The Council knows how many calls come in. It is important to flood their offices with calls to show where the public is on this issue.
Please come to the City Council meeting is set for Thursday, October 20th. And bring your neighbors! The hearing will begin some time after 11:00 am.

To send to all councilmembers and the mayor at once, copy and paste:

mayor@nola.gov; shead@nola.gov; jasonwilliams@nola.gov; sgguidry@nola.gov; lcantrell@nola.gov;
nmramsey@nola.gov; jcbrossett@nola.gov; jagray@nola.gov

Councilmember At Large – Jason Williams – (504) 658-1070
Councilmember At Large – Stacy Head – (504) 658-1060
Councilmember District A – Susan Guidry – (504) 658-1010
Councilmember District B – LaToya Cantrell – (504) 658-1020
Councilmember District C – Nadine Ramsey – (504) 658-1030
Councilmember District D – Jared Brossett – (504) 658 1040
Councilmember District E – James Gray – (504) 658 1050
Mayor’s Office – (504) 658-4900

SAMPLES:

Here is a sample phone call; you may wish to focus on any of the topics in the blurbs below:

My name is John Smith and I live in [Insert Neighborhood – Include title if you hold a position with the neighborhood association]. I’d like to speak with Councilmember [insert name] about short-term rentals. [if councilmember is unavailable, please share your opinion with the staff member who takes your call]

I’ve learned of recent developments that may undermine the recommendations of the Planning Commission and to allow whole-home short term rentals in residential neighborhoods by permitting so-called “Temporary” short term rentals for 120 days a year as opposed to the 30 days supported by the Commission.

I’m strongly against any end arounds that will let whole-home rentals in under a different name or label. The Planning Commission removed whole-home rentals for a reason.

I’m also opposed to any type of short-term rentals in the French Quarter and areas where bed and breakfasts are currently banned. [Insert an individual statement about your community if you would like].

We are a city of neighborhoods. It is the residents of the city that make New Orleans great. Displacing us from our communities in place of tourists chips away at our soul and our culture.

Please keep this in mind and make sure that we keep whole home rentals – by any name – out of our neighborhoods.

Sample E-mail (1): You may wish to send a short, one-paragraph e-mail using one of the blurbs below or may use this sample email:

Dear Mayor and Councilmembers:

My name is John Smith and I live in [Insert Neighborhood – Include title if you hold a position with the neighborhood association].

I am writing to express my support for strong and fair regulation of Short term rentals. It has come to my attention that the Administration has proposed regulations that would undermine the City Planning Commission recommendation to ban Type P whole-home short term rentals and I would like to express my position.

I am strongly against any end arounds that will let whole-home rentals in under a different name or label – 120 days per year is not “temporary.” As such, please take note of my position that:

The number of days that Type “T” temporary rentals is permitted must be reduced. This many days allows absentee hosts and effectively re-introduces Type “P” Principal Residential.
Require a homestead exemption for all Type “T” rentals. The spirit of Type “T” is that it allows locals to benefit from STRs without destroying neighborhoods. If a homestead exemption is not required (like it is for Type “A”) then it allows for the continuation of our residential housing stock to continue being turned into STRs for commercial gain and investment purposes.
Disallow all short term rentals in the French Quarter and other areas where new bed and breakfasts are currently banned – including Type “T” Temporary. Maintain the multi-decade ban on new lodging rooms in the French Quarter.
Allow Type “C” commercial rentals only where hotels are allowed and with a conditional use process and with limits and enforcement. Allowing whole-rentals as an unrestricted permitted use in mixed-use and commercially-zoned areas will have far reaching effects into the livability of our mixed-use communities.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
John Smith
123 X Street
New Orleans, LA 77777

Sample E-mail (2): You may wish to send a short, one-paragraph e-mail using one of the blurbs below or may use this sample email:

Dear Mayor and Councilmembers:

My name is John Smith and I live in [Insert Neighborhood – Include title if you hold a position with the neighborhood association].

I am also strongly against any end arounds that will let whole-home rentals in under a different name or label. To protect against this, we must be sure to require homestead exemptions for all short term rentals (other than Commercial) so that they truly are a model of the “sharing economy” whereby a home owner shares his/her home with a guest. Temporary short term rentals with a 120-day maximum does not fit the model of “temporary” and is the functional equivalent of a Principal Residential Short Term Rental.

I am not against all short term rentals. I support allowing homeowners to short term rent a room in their house or the other side of a double where they live. I support allowing homeowners to rent their house on a limited and temporary basis once or twice a year. But I do not support so-called whole-home rentals. They will destroy neighborhood fabric, reduce the affordable housing supply, and take jobs from hospitality workers. We must also be careful not to allow whole rentals unrestricted into mixed-use and commercially-zoned areas under the Type “C” commercial license.

Additionally, we cannot allow short term rentals in the French Quarter and areas of high demand where hotels and bed and breakfasts are already banned.

[Insert an individual statement about your community if you would like].

To summarize:

The number of days that Type “T” temporary rentals is permitted must be reduced.
Require a homestead exemption for all Type “T” rentals.
Disallow all short term rentals in the French Quarter and other areas where new bed and breakfasts are currently banned – including Type “T” Temporary.
Allow Type “C” commercial rentals only where hotels are allowed and with a conditional use process and with limits and enforcement.