WILMINGTON — The City of Wilmington’s Planning Commission has finally made a decision regarding short-term rentals in Wilmington – and that is, they cannot agree on a decision. Now, it is up to the City Council to make a decision.
On Monday, the Planning Commission discussed once again to amend the city code to include definitions related to short term rentals, a process with more than two-years in the making.
There was some disagreement from the commission regarding how commissioners wanted to proceed, with a split vote of 3-3, the item is being sent to the City Council without recommendation from the Planning Commission.
The Planning Commission’s meeting was rescheduled due to inclement weather, but was originally planned for the beginning of the month.
After two hours of discussion Monday, the commission was unable to agree upon an ordinance change recommendation, however, there are a few items the commissioners were able to agree on.
“It appeared there was general agreement on the issue of homestay’s being allowed in residential and commercial districts, requiring registration for all short-term rentals, three strikes and you’re out for code and criminal violations, and whole-house lodging in the commercial and mixed-use districts,” Senior Planner Christine Hughes said.
The disagreement among commissioners comes on the definition of “whole-house lodging.” There are two types of whole-house lodging planning staff has decided on, type-I and type-II. According to a presentation, the type-I would require minimum supervision, and type-II would have no supervision.
“There are two directions we could go, to keep whole-house lodging type-I and type-II as they are, or to consolidate those in some way into a single definition,” Hughes said.
There was also some debate regarding the separation requirement, which would only allow a certain number of rentals within a distance in residential areas.
“While there was some agreement that density should be limited (in residential districts), how that happens wasn’t clear. We could keep the 400-650-foot separation requirement, we could eliminate the separation requirement entirely, or we could eliminate the one per person registration restriction,” she said.
After deliberation, Commissioners were unable to agree on a resolution, although several suggestions were made. Instead, the item will move forward to City Council, where Council Members could ask for a joint work session with the Planning Commission.
Michael Praats can be reached at Michael.p@localvoicemedia.com
