Council plans to split short-term rental vote

The City Council members present at a work session on Tuesday appeared to reach a consensus on the idea of splitting up the discussion on the short-term rental ordinance planned for this Thursday. Rather than consider all of the proposed changes to the ordinance, Council members discussed holding a public hearing and vote only on whether to remove the “testing the waters” provision of the current ordinance. They also discussed holding a vote on whether to set another public hearing for the remaining short-term rental proposals, to take place at the next Council meeting on Jan. 28. The “testing the waters” provision, which has proven controversial, allows potential short-term rental operators to advertise for a short-term rental before having obtained a license in order to gauge demand. “I would say that the ‘testing the waters’ provision would be a good one to take up on Thursday and delay the rest of it to January 28,” concluded Council Member Leslie Pool, eliciting no objection from her colleagues. Council members Don Zimmerman and Sheri Gallo were not present for the discussion.