The St. Charles City Council imposed a one-year moratorium on allowing permitting for short-term rentals listed on sites like Airbnb and VRBO.
The vote, 8-2, will apply to rentals of 30 days or less and becomes effective June 17.
“What they're seeing is a huge influx of people turning their homes into Airbnbs and the residents in those neighborhoods are concerned about safety issues,” said Bryon Keelin, president of Freedom Principle MO, a Missouri-first 501(c)3. "When you open your house up, you don't necessarily do the background check for rentals on Airbnb whereas you might do so on a longer rental."
The moratorium is being imposed in order to provide the local government to catch up on permitting, according to media reports.
“It's just to allow the city time to process the backlog permit applications,” Keelin told the St. Louis Record. “It's not a ban on permits. This is the result of a growing industry of home rentals for vacationers versus hotels.”
Councilwoman Mary West introduced the resolution so that the City can evaluate the potential effects of previously approved rentals.
Short-term rentals in commercial zones are exempt.
"I'm listening to my constituents, and they're saying we have enough," West told the St. Louis Post Dispatch last month. "And most of the people I talk to don't want one next to their homes."
The city council previously approved a rule nearly a year ago that requires each application for permitting to be approved by the city and announced at a public hearing.
“St. Charles is a unique historic community,” Keelin said in an interview. “It's got good access to state parks and, and it's got good access to the historic downtown area there. It's even relatively close to St. Louis if you wanted to go downtown. It’s pretty centrally located so I can see why there are a lot of people wanting to stay in St. Charles.”
As previously reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, no more than 0.5% of St. Charles' housing units can be short-term rentals with a 158-unit limit under current law and since August 2022, the city council approved up to 80 permit applications in residential neighborhoods.
"It's an extra source of income and with inflation as high as it is people need to find extra ways to make money but the neighbors are asking for it as a way of protecting themselves from criminals or bad renter-type of people," Keelin added.