ATL Neighbors developed a policy questionnaire as part of its Short Term Rental fact finding efforts to determine which potential STR rules Atlanta supports. ATL Neighbors contacted everyone who participated in previous questionnaires via email, which includes 125 of the 243 neighborhoods in Atlanta and every NPU Chair in the 2019 Community Directory. The intent was to get feedback from as much of the city as possible. Some community representatives forwarded the questionnaire to their constituents while others answered on behalf of their communities.
Participants selected one or more answers from a list of preselected answers. The questionnaire opened on August 16 2020 and the data presented here is current as of September 1 2020.
The raw data from the questionnaire is available here.
ATL Neighbors values transparency and privacy. Information that identifies individuals such as names and addresses has been removed from the data set. Comments may also have been redacted or otherwise modified to protect a participant's privacy.
ATL Neighbors post processes and attempts to validate the questionnaire results, which may lead to some discrepancies for others attempting to corroborate the statistics here. One example is that only one response per person is allowed so ATL Neighbors removed duplicate submissions.
This diagram shows the relationship between participating neighborhoods and their respective City Council Districts.
Mouse over each axis to display the percentage of participants who supported each rule.
The results are divided into two charts for readability.
Hosts desperately need to actually live at residents used as rentals. And the city needs to actually enforce their rules and require extensive proof of residency and follow up regularly.
I support ADA requirements, but requiring all properties to meet this standard may preclude most people from hosting. Hotels do not have a minimum night stay and neither should STRs if they are properly regulated. Some of the proposed rules may not be necessary if others are enacted. For example, it may not be necessary to establish maximum occupancy and a limit on the total number of guests.
Like most other goods or services, STRs need licensing, someone to take clear ownership in case of issues, regulations for the property and host, someone to monitor and enforce those regulations, penalties for repeat enforcement, and we also need to ensure housing is equal and fair to all potential renters (ADA). I feel like tax should be levied against the good or service, and that tax should go towards the department monitoring and enforcing. If a host cannot follow the process or abide by the regulations, they shouldn't be allowed to continue hosting. My primary concern is how many STR hosts will hide behind LLCs to mask who they are, and whether this will allow them to get around being blacklisted. I know there are ways to prevent this, but some of the worst slumlords we've dealt with in SE ATL have an uncanny ability to be able to legally hide who they are.
Permanent Signage should be required so that neighbors are aware of how many homes in their neighborhood are STR.
Reference Asheville, NC STR policy for a good example of a successfully implemented policy.
I am both a resident of the city of Atlanta and I host short term rentals at my primary residence in the City of Atlanta. I am opposed to any extra rules or regulations that are not already promulgated by the state.
Please contact ATL neighbors if you are interested in volunteering to help with fact finding efforts. Volunteers with experience in public policy, city planning, law, web development, data science, data visualization, public relations or community outreach are of particular interest.
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