City Council - Special Meeting

I wanted you. Is this a sign in meeting or no? It says 5:00. Call the Broken Air special city council meeting to order. Roll call. Pickle here. Green here. Ford here. Parks here. Wimpy here. Um item uh three preview ordinances. 3A consideration discussion and possible preview of ordinance number 3905 amending chapter 7 article uh 17 uh definitions operating standards platform duties owner cap enforcement and appendix checklist. Trevor maybe.

Yes and ready to go. Thank you. Just one qu just one point is that a lot of work went into this with Trevor and and Chief Arnold and I I wanted Trevor to lead this conversation since his or amendments but the chief's going to be moving in and out to answer questions and to discuss what's being proposed. Okay. Um and to begin I thought we had a PowerPoint presentation. There it is. Ask and you shall receive.

Excellent. So, I think these are some items that we can move through basically at your leisure. Um, at any time if you have any questions or comments or directions, that's really what this is is a work session to get your input. Uh, so that we know exactly what you want to do to regulate this this area. Uh we have some suggestions from our last preview ordinance and kind of to bring you up to speed uh what's happened since then is uh Chief Arnold has met with several uh short-term rental owners and so we've gotten input from the business community to see how these regulations would impact their day-to-day operations. They also had some recommendations on what they thought would make, you know, some better revisions or changes. and we were in agreement with several of those and we'll have an opportunity to talk about what those are as we go forward with it. Um, you know, originally one of the thoughts I had was to uh just go line by line on all the different changes, but I decided a more efficient approach would be let's like highlight at a 30,000 foot level and then we can kind of drill down on what the recommended changes would be and then if you wanted to get into details on any of the others, we'll certainly have opportunity to do that. So, if with that, we'll go ahead and begin. So, we really wanted to talk a little bit about the current state of the um short-term rentals. Uh like I said, we're going to talk about what some of the changes are uh with the owners. Specifically, we're going to talk about the recommended insurance requirement. Um like I said, we're not going to go the ordinance line by line, but we are going to talk about next steps. Let's do the next slide. So, let's talk about the current state of affairs. So the first thing we need to do is get our our bearings in terms of the definition. So we have three types of short-term rentals uh in our city. Um the first type are called STR1s and those are where the owner resides on the premises and there's a single family dwelling where there's no more than two

guest bedrooms or sleeping rooms are rented. So those are the more the less intense uses. Um, and so as we go through there, we'll see that depending on the use of the the residence, that might dictate how intensive the regulations would be. So you'll see like some of the regulations that we'll be recommending for a short short-term rental one might be less than what we would say for short-term rental two or three. Uh, we currently have one short-term rental one, I'm sorry, 10 short-term rental ones, uh, in the city. The second type we have is a type two. We have 61 of those in the city right now. And there's no owner occupancies required. But on on type twos, there's no more than four guest bedrooms that are allowed. And then once you get to type three, you get the more intensive use. They're more like a u airb like a like a bed and breakfast or an inn. Uh more like that because those are those are no more than eight uh units. So you're getting into more of a boarding house type uh unit at that point. Um, but what we have found through our investigation is that we we've identified 65 short-term rentals operating without a license because we don't have information from them. We don't know how to categorize them. We don't know exactly the number of rooms or if if they're, you know, owner occupied. Um, so there's Yeah. Yes, ma'am.

Question on that. So like but but you know that there are 65 out there but we don't have a way of contacting them or Well, I would have to uh defer uh to Rocky if he had some more information on how we identified the 65 that that operating with that license. So yeah, we've identified them through the BBO or uh the other short-term rental platforms and we do send them letters but currently we have no enforcement mechanism to have them come into compliance. So this week if we have no mechanism to have them come into compliance, why would anyone else comply? And that's why that's part of what we're talking about.

Yeah. And towards the end, that's one of the points that we have to talk about was like what can we do to increase uh penalties uh to put some teeth into our ordinance so that we can get compliance. Um and we can talk about some of the challenges that we've been having uh on that area. Um, we've identified approximately two to three short-term rentals uh coming online every week. And like like we mentioned, one of the difficulties that we're having is that a lot of these unlicensed site are owned by out of out of state owners. I've talked to our prosecutor about it and what what ends up happening is we do the best we can to get good service on the citations um often times by leaving them on the at the residence but if they're foreign um doiciled people sometimes they're not even getting these especially if we don't have their um local agent you know on file which is one of the changes that we've had requested is that you have to have a local known agent that can be responsive in a short amount of time. And so that's one of the challenge that we'd had. And and then the other thing that we have is um some of the citations will be left at the address. Um and we c we need to uh be more efficient on the prosecution side and getting and requesting our judge uh to follow through with warrants. But again, the difficulty is or and failure to appear. Uh but the difficulty is we're not a court of record. if the person who owns it is out of state, it's very difficult to get them to comply to come to a non-quarter of record uh for a code violation. And so that's just one of the limits of our powers u when we have folks that own these that are that are out of state. Um so some of those are some of the challenges that that we've been we've been facing. Unfortunately, I don't have any like bulletproof, you know, silver bullet, you know, solutions that we can uh,

you know, haul them in front of our judge, uh, or, you know, have fines for them. Um, it it's just difficult because we're trying to exercise power over somebody who's not physically here.

Um, so that those are some of the challenges that we're facing. Um, the next area that you asked us to look at was the hotel motel tax on the short-term rentals. And any hotel motel tax has to be passed by a vote of the people. Um, any tax has to be voted on by the vote by a vote of the people. And that happened um I think I want to say it was back in 2008. And so we have that codified for the hotel tax in section 22-11. uh for our hotel and motel. But the key portion of this tax is how do we define a hotel under our current ordinance because that's the only entity that we can collect taxes from. So the question is is a short-term rental considered a hotel under the definition as it was approved by the citizens? And the answer to that is I'm not sure. It's vague. Um we use some older language in this ordinance. So we have two different sentences. The first one is a more restrictive sentence that basically says a hotel basically has has to have five or more rooms to be used for the accommodation. And so that's why we've only been collecting the hotel motel tax on the level three because those are the only ones that would exceed the five for the definition. But we do have a more expansive definition that that it continues on. It basically includes any and all other facilities where rooms or sleeping facilities or space are furnished for consideration. And so when you hear that, that's a much more broad expansive reading that arguably could cover all short-term rentals because all of them are are accomplishing that. But when you look at statutory construction and interpretation, um it's really would be up to a court. The risk would be a court challenge. And what they would look at is is the first sentence uh operative on the second sentence. Are they both standalone?

Meaning does a definition of hotel include both everything that has five rooms and all these other catchalls or is the second sentence informed by the first one. So really our options would be the safest option would be if we're considering increasing the hotel motel tax or if we want to have this clarified by the people, we would just include the definition of short-term rentals explicitly in the definition because when this was originally passed, that wasn't a thing. And so that's why there's a little tension and vagueness there. Um, if we wanted to take the risk, you know, we certainly could go forward uh with attempting to collect those taxes. I think that we'd probably catch a legal challenge. And again, I don't know how a court would interpret that. Um, so that's kind of where we are on the hotel motel tax and I think it would require a little bit more investigation on our part uh to determine to make a recommendation to this body.

So you're saying if we go back to the people like to raise the hotel motel tax at the same time, we can change the definition of the Airbnb so we can get taxes from them. Yes, ma'am. And so that would change from them paying them to the airb Airbnb system because I think they currently pay taxes to directly to this like the Airbnb people or BRBO people. Correct. And we're supposed to remmit those back or they're supposed to remit them to us.

Right. So my understanding is they're definitely paying the sales tax but uh only only category 3 is being collected for the hotel motel tax. And so if there was a change as uh councelor Ford uh had asked about then that would clarify it so that both STR1's and twos would be explicitly defined as being a hotel and the tax could would be collected from them and then we would we would obtain that

and I I would like to see them have to pay the hotel motel tax being on the tourism committee that's very important that money Uh, next slide, please. So, we've talked a little bit about uh the tools that we have with our code enforcement. It's basically a code enforcement citations is how we're enforcing our licensing. Um, you know, the courtesy notices that Rocky mentioned that are being sent out regularly are not being uh responded to. Um, we have had a thirdparty monitoring service of host compliance since 2022. Um, you know, one of the options that that we could we could look at would be if we did update our short-term rental ordinance would be coordinating with some of these uh thirdparty hosting sites, you know, let them know that there's permitting requirements that you you're hosting folks on here that don't have permits and we'd like to see you taken down. So, that would be an alternative means that wouldn't be enforcement against the owners, but it would limit the market that they would have. Uh, and that may help get compliance because if they're not able to market on the large sites, uh, that might be enough of an incentive for them to go ahead and get get licensed.

But would the large sites do that because they would be losing money? I don't know the answer to that. Okay. Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah.

Um, you know, that's one of the things we've been trying to come up with alternative solutions. Yeah. And so that would be yet to be seen because we haven't had those conversations with them. Um, next slide please. So the whole reason that we're even looking at updating or changing our ordinance is because of the increase in the number of police calls for service over the last two years. Specifically, uh we've had uh at permitted uh STRs 28 calls for services. At unpermitted STRs uh we've had 30 calls for service. And the top address is is on there 1,200 1205 West Quincy Street. Uh and then frequent the frequent types of issues that we're having and and this is why we've addressed them in the updated ordinance uh are the parking issues and the noise disturbance issues. And I wanted to invite um Chief Arnold to talk a little bit about what our experience has been in the field and what we've been seeing uh you know problemwise from our officers and why we need to you know tighten up our ordinance to give our officers you know additional tools to address those problems. Okay.

Uh good evening mayor uh counselors Mr. Spurgeon Lance Arnold chief of police. uh as you know the slide really does kind of say it all but the challenges that we've had. We mentioned at the last meeting when this first came up and and Trevor did a fantastic job really of describing how this is really what got all of this started where we were going to calls primarily where uh an adult was renting the through through one of the platforms was renting an Airbnb or a short-term rental. Uh and what it was really intended for was a a giant party for typically juveniles. In several of those instances last summer we actually did have shots fired, firearm shots fired. we would get there find shell casings all over the place. People would have scattered everywhere. And these again are in regular neighborhoods. They're in the neighborhoods that we all live in. And so that's really what originally caught our attention. The more I've had the discussion with our officers, these are the best that we could find based on uh what we know are permanent addresses, which we got that information from community development and then from our uh our partnership with Host Compliance. Um Joe got our the information on the the the ones that have been turned into us from host compliance that are being advertised that aren't. So we cross checked all of those addresses to figure out which ones which call for service we've had for each one of those. Those were just active. So we don't know over again that's a two-year period. Could there have been more? The other concern that I brought up last time is is that we've moved forward with the opening of the amphitheater. We continue to drive more tourism type activities towards Broken Arrow that these are only going to increase. Um, so what typically we had done in the past is once we determined it was a short-term rental, we would turn that information into code uh or community development. But as you've heard, community development lacks really any kind of teeth in their enforcement. Not only for um the unpermitted, but even on the permitted, there wasn't really a mechanism in place to be able to review their license or their permit to revoke those permits or anything like that. And so that's really

kind of what what got this started. So on like the like the eight calls on the um on that one address which is wild that they continue to get calls or like or parents calling or like do does anything does the parents get in trouble for renting out a home? They can there's certainly laws uh associated with host uh ordinances or laws in place for that those kinds of things. However, the parents aren't normally there and without access to the hosting platform or to the owner, we have no idea who actually rented the place. Okay. Um, so that's a challenge for us as well. Okay.

When you have an outside um owner, I mean that you you can eventually maybe get that information from the large platforms, but at that time of night um not so much. So yeah, and and I we did mention either one of the other services that host compliance uh which is done through Granicus does for the city is they actually do operate a 24/7 hotline. Um and so if you have neighbors and there maybe not rise to the level of a police related call, but if you have neighbors and we were unaware even at the police department until we started having this conversation with Rocky's team and Joe uh that that that 247 line was even available to us. But again, those are really the for the permitted ones who have turned in their application and have all of that information available to be able to provide to us. So on the unpermitted ones, we have no idea at that moment at 2:00 in the morning who the owner really would be.

Yeah. So the address that had the aid, were they permitted or not permitted? Not permitted. So like we have nothing to hold over them. We can't say we're going to take a permit away because they're like we don't have a permit. Right. Okay, thank you, Chief. Uh, next slide, please.

So, um, what were what was some of the feedback that received from the folks that operate in the space and who work in this in the day-to-day basis? So, several of the the requests for changes, as I had mentioned, were relief or adjustments for type one ownerships. And we're in agreement with a lot of these changes because like we talked about the intensity of the use can designate what type of regulation that we need to have. So for example, one of the questions that we had was about the license uh visibility and the numbers on the listing. Um especially for type ones where the owner is living on site, there is a concern over listing the actual address before it's it's being booked. and if they had to uh publish their their permit licensing, then that information would be out there. So, one of the things that we looked at was exempting type one short-term rentals um on the mandate for the specific license number to be displayed on the listing itself. And then this would avoid disclosing the specific address of the short-term rental. But what we would recommend is to retain the requirement that the license is needed to list on the platform. And that goes back to one of the enforcement mechanisms that that we think that would help. If we have that requirement that they have to submit it to the platform, but it's not visible, that removes the concern over people knowing where the owner, you know, lives, but it still makes sure that the hosting company knows that you have to have a license uh to to have it on there, and if they don't, they shouldn't list it. Um, so I think that would address some of the short-term type one owners uh concerns. Uh, the second issue we had was the clarification on the platform tax remittance. So basically what we would do for this is we would just add clarifying language that the hosting platform itself may remit applicable taxes and fees on the lency's behalf. And that's exactly what you're talking about, mayor. And so it would just be a matter of design designating and making it acceptable for the hosting platform

to remit those fees and taxes and that would remove a burden from the STR owner. Um the third was preference for transition at renewal rather than a fixed deadline. So the idea is when the permit would come up for renewal um you'd have an effective date of transition so that the existing permitted STR of the licences have until their next renewal period to come into full compliance instead of a fixed 90-day period. So it would just give them a long oh pardon me a longer on-ramp

uh a longer onramp on on-ramp to to come in compliance with all the additional changes and like I said I think that those are acceptable reasonable you know asks uh that we would recommend. Um if there's not any questions we could go to the next slide please. Um the decision points are basically we can adopt, modify or reject any of the changes that we have per section. Uh we talked about the license visibility and privacy. Uh let's talk about the insurance approach. So one of the things that we had in there was uh to require short-term rentals to have a $1 million commercial general liability insurance uh requirement. So, one of the options that we could have for the short-term rentals types one would be we could exempt the short-term rentals type one from that requirement. Or alternatively, if this body would like to, we could remove the insurance mandate citywide if the c if the council, you know, preferred that. Um, go to the next slide, please. We can look at some of the in the information we found about insurance. So, one of the questions that Spotty had at the last meeting was let's look at it like practically how much is it would it cost a business owner to obtain this type of insurance coverage. Um, and the the information that we we found was the standalone policy for $1 million would be approximately uh 200 2,000 to 3,000 annually. My understanding was that the host coverage uh I mean I'm sorry the hosting sites like Airbnb and VBO already provide $1 million $1 million of secondary coverage at no cost. So if they're listing and getting booked through those sites that would already be in place and that would satisfy the requirement. I think the difficulty is there's a lot of other sites that and I I don't know if Rocky has information on those if if any of the other sites have that as a as a benefit.

No, I'm not aware.

Okay. Uh and then the other option would be, you know, um if we did have the requirement an umbrella policy offering $1 million of coverage is approximately $200 to $400 uh annually. And so again, this would be a decision point for council uh on this, you know, recommended requirement for the $1 million of policy is you could require it for all short-term rentals, you could require it for none of them. Uh or you could exempt short-term rentals one and have it required for two and three. Um it it's really up to you on what you're what what you're what you want to do. Well, when this was brought to us um at the last meeting, I didn't even know there were three different um categories. I just thought it was just a blanket. Did you all know there was three different categories?

I think I had it. Yeah. An inkling, but maybe didn't understand. So, I mean, that kind of makes more sense on like the um you know, like the smaller one to maybe not have to carry the bigger one, but then that umbrella policy for $200 to $400 is really I mean, in the big scheme of things, that's not that much when you're doing business. I mean, really, that'll protect them as well. The $2 to $3,000 would be kind of a lot for someone with a smaller um Airbnb to have to take in. Mr. Ple,

I was say the So, Pardon me. I know um I had reached out to quite a few different uh colleagues that I have in the industry and um I know we had the one owner that was saying that her personal insurance policy covered her Airbnbs and um I'm not saying that it doesn't, but nobody had ever heard of that where a personal policy would provide commercial something that's being done commercially. Um and so when you look at the umbrella policy offering a million that would kind to $400 that would kind of be the same. Is that a personal umbrella or is that a commercial umbrella? Because those are two different types of things as well.

Um but then again is is that something we want to get into the weeds with is requiring you know forcing liability coverage. I mean, because what what is the impact on the city if that's not in place? You know, there really isn't because it goes back to the, you know, homeowner, business owner, whatever it would be. Um, but like I said,

h I'm I don't like I said, I've never heard of a personal homeowner's policy providing coverage for commercial use on other structures on their property. Um, so I was I was a bit surprised by that one. I couldn't have anybody really validate that either. Uh, but like I said, going back, you're getting in the weeds. You're really getting in the weeds of the policy language and all of that kind of stuff to know if it's if we're if it's providing the right coverage uh that we men we we we've meant it to, you know, if that makes sense. Well, maybe if there's a way we can strengthen like our um requirements on the front end, like this this part wouldn't really be that important at the end of the day,

you know. We do have one person signed up to speak. They didn't mark I'm assuming they want to speak. Yes.

Okay. Um Carla Coats Thank you. I'm Carla Coats and I am a short-term rental owner of two properties in Broken Arrow. I am permitted legal and I am in I am absolutely in full support of a permit being required because I I want you all to see how beautiful it can be for our economy and our neighborhoods. I mean, I I keep my properties looking good. Um, and as far as the police calls, um, I think it's important that we all be permitted and and that you all do what what you need to do to enforce it if it's not permitted. But for us out here who are law-abiding and and rule- abiding um residents of Broken Arrow, um we're just trying to do the right thing collectively.

Yeah. And so to hear more cost coming our way. Um I know that Airbnb and Verbbo, they do provide the insurance. They do vet the uh the guests before we ever even know that they've booked with us. And and there are some bad apples and we don't want them any more than the city of Broken Arrow wants them. I I don't want them in my property. So, um, I came in here loaded for bear, but I think that you all are doing a good job in in deciding what needs to be done and and however we can support that.

Do you mind me asking um the two that you have, are they would they be considered a one or a two or a type two? Type two, type two. And then um what would you say is the percentage of the time that your people that are renting those are going through the Airbnb or VBO sites versus a a different way? I only have two. Uhhuh. Airbnb is about 70% and Verbbo is about 30. Well, there you go. And they provide that secondary coverage for Yes, sir. Yes. Mhm. on this like this situation is typical of most things, right? the bad eggs

make do so much more and it's like we just want them to not do bad things but it's like and we have to make things more stringent you know and which obviously the ultimate goal is to be safe and you guys be able to run your business and um the thought of incurring more costs for the people who are doing it correctly just to try to get the ones that are we can't even get to sign up for a permit I don't really like that So, um, but there's got to be a way to figure out, you know, how to get the ones that are unpermanent not doing what they're supposed to do.

And the hotel tax, we are already taxed up to our noses. I I mean, really, uh, and and that tax comes right back to you, the state of Oklahoma, and the city of Broken Arrow. And so I don't know how you can think that we are a hotel or we we I think the point was instead of staying in a hotel where we would get the tourism tax dollars or sales or the tax tax dollars um they're staying in a VBO or Airbnb instead of staying in our hotels. So I think that's where is that what you're meaning? Yeah. And so what what taxes are you paying now besides the

state and local taxes? Do you know about what the percentage that is? I I'm sorry I didn't bring it, but I I I know that it's substantial. Yeah. Um

I just know in since and I'm probably pretty confident there's quite a few people on the council and things like that have rented Airbnbs for the RPOS's and there is such a strong benefit to having those when you're wanting to well like I'll just use you know my daughter's wedding. you know, we rented an Airbnb and we had additional family that came and it was much nicer to have everyone at the same place versus uh we're getting four or five hotel rooms and having to go to a common area. So, there's a lot of benefits to it for sure and I think there's a lot of opportunity. But then I do go back and just want to echo kind of what the mayor said is there's got to be a way that for people like yourself that are doing it uh and we'll just say correctly uh you know not impacting what you're doing but trying to figure out a way how can we get those those bad apples.

Yeah. You know.

Yeah. Uh the hotels, they don't vet anyone. If you've got a credit card, whether it's a legal credit card or a stolen credit card, an ID, here's your room. And we as short-term rental owners don't get any sort of hotel incentive incentives like the hotels do here. So, I I know I take great pride in in hosting. Um, I like things to be a spirit of excellence and that's how I'll keep it regardless of what you all decide. But I I hope that you'll take what we have to say into consideration.

Our hotel tax that we get from the hotels goes directly into marketing our city which brings people into our city who's staying at your um bed and baths and RBNB and the hotel. So you are benefiting indirectly without paying for the taxes is why is what that's a good point. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

Um my and our and I which I feel like it's everyone's concern when um neighbors come and say we don't want this Airbnb in our neighborhood and we say we're going to make sure they follow the rules and we're going to make sure you know that um that they're not going to be a nuisance. That's I think that's the end. That's where we're trying to get. We want you to be able to make money. Of course, we want people to come to our city and stay in your Airbnbs, but we also want you to be a good neighbor. And I'm not saying you specifically, I'm just like in general.

Um, and that's where we're trying to get. We don't want to put so many rules on you where it it is a strain for you to do business. But then at the end of the day, you're in a neighborhood, you know, where people that's their whole life investment and that's where seniors thought they would go to a quiet place to live and then a fight breaks out and fires, you know, shots are fired or whatever. And not that that's a typical night at an Airbnb and Broken Arrow, but clearly it has happened. So, I mean, we're we want to try to get to a happy medium. Is there anything that you can add to our discussion that we haven't brought up that you could think of or

Yes. Um, both of my properties I've owned, uh, one for 20 years, so I was the resident living there, and the other one right here in the Rose District, I've owned for six years, and I lived there for four. Um, on on our short-term rental, we're we put quiet hours. Mine are through the week 1000 pm to 7:00 a.m. and on the weekends 11:00 p.m. to 7 a.m. or quiet hours. So my neighbors all have my phone number and I have been called a few times and I I have uh the ability to ask them to exit the premises if they don't adhere to the rules.

Yeah. So, uh, I think to have rules in place and then, you know, of course the the police involvement should we need it. Um, I mean, as citizens, the police are here for us. So, uh, I I thank you for coming. If somebody is raising a ruckus at my property, I want you there as fast as you can get there, and I appreciate it. Yeah. So, one of the things we're recommending is an a noise monitor. And I know you said the neighbors will call you if it gets, you know, rowdy or whatever, but do you have any type of thing like that now? A noise monitor on the precise?

I have ring cameras on both of my properties on the front porch and it notifies me if somebody is at the door. Um, but not noise per se, but I'm not opposed to getting that. Yeah, it seemed it was really reasonable. I think like $100 or something you could purchase it. So, yeah.

My comment would be that uh uh you know, I know it's been used a lot and hear some of our counselors uh uh use them that way. I uh my wife and I had uh four apartments that we had for oh 25 years and and a commercial building. Of course, we kept insurance on it and we never have any trouble with renting it. So, it worked out so well that uh we never thought about changing it. My main thing with the RBNB, no matter what we do, is to make sure that police have as much information as they can, you know what I mean? as they can be that can be given to them to uh accommodate them in case there was a problem. Uh we had one across the street from where I live and they rented it and it was all kids and they were up to oh 2 or 3:00 in the morning

and ended up costing them their parents $800. I talked to the owner

because that's how much damage that they had done. So I never had damage like that in my rental property. Not to say it couldn't have. It's just that I always had rather have that than a temporary rental and not really know the people. If you work through companies that can pretty well guarantee that they're, you know what I mean, solid people, I think that's great because there's a need to go in just for a week or three or four days or something like that. So, I'm certainly in favor of it. I just want to make sure the police have anything that they can to uh help accommodate it as far as getting information. Well, I can't speak for anyone who doesn't follow the rules. So, all right.

Uh I mean, my my Rose District property is right on the um the souththeast corner of First and Freeport. And every third house now in in this area right here, they're they're just tearing stuff down and rebuilding. And I'm thinking Airbnb, Airbnb, short-term rental, and it it's all over. So, right, I'm all for you enforcing codes. Right. So, whatever they need, I need the police. Thank you all for your time. Thank you, ma'am.

So, that that is encouraging to hear the businesses that are responsible. So, for example, the quiet hours that she has from 10:00 to 7, one of the requirements that we would have would apply that the less responsible folks who aren't doing that. And we just codified that into our ordinance that would say quiet hours apply to the city from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Um, the same with the interior non-recording noise monitoring device. As Chief Arnold mentioned, that was one of the main reasons for the calls. So, if you have a local responsible agent that has to respond within an hour and they have the technology in there that is very affordable, I think like you said, it's $100 or so. That's what Chief Arnold checked the prices at our last meeting. So yeah, that's yeah, it was very

that can notify them that hey, the people that are there are causing a ruckus um and it's after the quiet hours and so they can address it and if if they don't then, you know, our police officers have that information to go and do that. So I think it's a way to just make sure that the bad actors, you know, are are we can bring them up to the standard that that we need them in our community. I was gonna ask her, too. I'm sorry. Sorry, I should have asked you when you were down here. So, there was a certain percentage that you said you got from the Airbnbs and stuff. Like, how else do they find out about your place if it's not from one of those sites? Only referrals or Oh, just referrals. Okay.

Only through Airbnb. I don't I don't rent anything outside that platform. Okay.

Okay. Uh, next slide, please. We've already gone through several of these recommended changes. You know, we talked about adding the definitions uh for the type one, twos, and threes. Um, one of the things we had in the original ordinance was a potential discount um for permitting fees if there's additional training that we needed. Uh, after talking to Rocky, we decided to remove that. uh we would need a decision from the body on what they want to do with insurance, whether they want to eliminate that as a requirement or if they just want to have it for certain types of short-term rentals. Um on the noise monitor that we're we're talking about, that would be one of the other exceptions that we would recommend. Uh the type ones, those are owner occupied, so somebody would actually be living there on premise. So, if we didn't want to burden the smaller short-term rentals, we could exempt them. Uh, with the idea being the owner would be on site and could address those issues.

I hear and understand they're owner occupied, but you know what? Owners go out to eat, they go on vacation. They're not there 24/7, I imagine. So, I mean, there there are opportunities for the owner to be gone and the the renter to make noise or cause disturbance while the owner is gone. I understand the argument that she made. Well, I live here, but I live in my house, too. But I'm not there all the time. I mean, I travel. I'm getting ready to go to Oklahoma City for several days. I'll be in DC. I take vacations. So, I mean, as far as I could see doing an exemption if it was something really ownorish, but like we said, $100 doesn't seem like that that big a deal on that particular one.

And that's certainly something we can leave in place. Again, it was just it just would be the direction of this body on that.

Um, and like like I said, we we discussed the rest of those on there. So, next slide, please. Um, uh, next slide. Uh, that's just, you know, the annual licenses and fees would be set by the manual fees. So, the the council would set those fees. Um, we could do it by resolution around the manual fees. Uh, next slide, please. U, we've already talked about the local responsible agent. uh they would have to, you know, respond within an hour. Um that way we know that we're going to have somebody local that we can deal with if there's a problem. Uh there also is in terms of operation standards, um a parking plan. Um the idea is if you have um you know 20 vehicles showing up to one house that's only designed to hold you know four folks, they are by definition going to be blocking driveways, parking in front of fire hydrants, uh maybe parking, you know, on the curbs. Um they're just we just need to have them to have some plan that addresses, you know, how are you going to comply with our our parking requirements. Uh and the same goes same holds true for the safety map uh and the emergency information that's all listed out in in a very long appendix. Um it's the things that you would think of like you know smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, exit plans, things of that nature, contact information for the local responsible agent. Uh next slide, please. Wonder if the Airbnbs like the um and Airbos like if they require any of that kind of stuff because I know the ones I stay at it seems like they have like a safety plan and different things like that. I was just curious.

She said yes. She's shaking her head. Yes. Oh yes.

Uh again talking about the different operating standards having the local responsible agent. uh the sound limits, we talked about the quiet hours, the exterior cameras, that would be just as simple as having a Ring camera uh just so that they know who's coming and and who's going. Um we talked about the parking restriction. There are occupancy limits. Um so for example, uh we have a requirement under the operations that at any time the number of persons on site who are not overnight occupants may not exceed 10. Um and that would prohibit a gathering of more than that. So, the idea is you don't want a huge block party where you have, you know, eight people staying at a short-term rental and then you have, you know, another, you know, 15 people show up, uh, and it spills out into the street into the into the the, um, you know, curilage. Uh and then on the parking, uh the requirement is that there be at least one off- streetet parking space per sleeping area plus one additional space for the owner host uh unless it's otherwise provided for the mixed use and commercial districts. And then it explicitly states that vehicles should not obstruct sidewalks, driveways, or park on unpaved yards contrary to code. Those are currently codified requirements, but it just puts it in a simple way, you know, so the short-term rental people know like, hey, these are our requirements for parking and you need to abide by them. Uh, uh, next slide, please. Um, so we talked about the hosting platform responsibilities about changing it so that they could collect and remit the taxes. Um, and then the ownership cap for short-term rentals. We would need direction on this. The policy thought on this was whether or not we wanted to have I don't want to use a like a it'd

be like a short-term rental magnet. You know, somebody like a Blackstone or, you know, a LLC that that wants to, you know, own, you know, 50 houses and turn them all into short-term rentals. You know the idea being you know and we can come up with whatever number you wanted. I think four was arbitrary number in terms of it being smaller. So the idea would be we would have some limit on the total number of short-term rentals any individual entity uh could own to pro pre prohibit and prevent something like a large corporation like I said like a private equity for firm. Why would we want to limit someone's ability to have their own business grow? Like if they if they have the ability to have

five 10 VRBOs in our city and it meets our ordinance, why would we want to limit them? You might you might not want to. Uh that what we've seen in other communities is uh they can if you if you get these large groups that start getting a a large number of them, they can start pricing out, you know, single family homes. Sure. uh they can, you know, take over in whole areas. Um they can start competing with, you know, first-time home buyers. Um but again, that's not something that we have to do. And they can price out the smaller mom and pops only. Yeah. Because Yeah.

And then you're going to draw more of your foreignowned entities and those kind of things. Yeah.

Um so those were some of the additional uh you know suggestions for your consideration. Uh next slide please. Um oh suspension and revocation standards. So um we do have a escalating um suspension and revocation ladder. Uh, basically the way it works is the city would suspend a license for 30 days if you have two verified complaints within a 12-month period and 90 days if there's been three verified complaints within a 12-month period. And it's not just any type of uh complaint. Um, the type of nuisance behavior that we're talking about is defined in the ordinance. And so, uh, I can give you an example of what those types of things are. be like public intoxications, uh unlawful possession or consumption of alcohol by minors, uh consuming marijuana or products in a public space, uh contributing to delinquency of minor, fighting in public, parking violations. It's not just littering. So these are fairly significant um public safety concerns. Uh and so there's a ladder uh that would allow for suspension. Then there would be automatic suspensions um if you have um like I said two verified complaints within the 12-month period. Um in addition, we can also have immediate suspensions if there's a serious incident uh or failure for a local responsible agent to respond as required by the ordinance. Um you know, that way we just have some enforcement mechanism for those that that we've gotten into the system. Um,

and what and what if we suspend their license for 30 days, but they continue to rent. Then what do we do? We would cite them every day for operating without a permit and we would have a fine for each of those days. Um, and we would we would try to collect as much of that as we can if we can get them to court. Would that be something like we would put a lean on their house if they didn't pay those fines? Um, I don't know if that's something that we actually do on the code enforcement side. Uh Joe and Rocky are both shaking their heads. I don't I don't believe that's something that's so we can find them, but they don't have to pay for it. Is that what you're I mean like hope none of them are watching this meeting right now.

Well, I mean I'm just saying I mean we need some teeth and it that doesn't sound like it's got any teeth to it to me. Well, my question will be can we Oh, no. I'll pay my HOA dues. They put a lean on my house. Yeah. Can we do that? I don't know the answer to that. I could find out. I'm just saying the whole this whole meeting I feel like is to put some teeth in that that doesn't feel like any teeth is my opinion.

Like I said, one of the difficulty is with the foreign uh owners, they get a summon to come to Municipal Court in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. They just ignore it. Um, and so we were looking for alternative means of enforcement such as working with the hosting companies to have them delisted if they're not getting licensed and not compliant. Um, and so

there's um, and I can't remember if it was an OML conference or if it was NLC conference, there is a vendor that actually has a software that can identify the unpermented like it they know they can identify the the the homes that are on those platforms that are within your city and they have a a mechanism to contact those people and get them to be permitted in your city. Um, I'll find out if it was OML or NLC, but I'll find out who the vendor was. Um, I feel like I got their card. Um, but it was pretty cool the system. Oh, wait. I don't know how much the software was, but if it can get us all, you know, permitted, it might help with that situation, but that would be very helpful.

Yeah. Uh, next slide, please. How many slides do we have, Trevor? This is the last one. Okay. I wanted to thank Chief Arnold. He did create the slide. Um, thank you, Chief Honorable.

Um, so really where we are, uh, this was just for a discussion. Um, if there's any specific directions that you'd like to give us at this time, we could take those and then we could rewrite the ordinance and either bring it back for another preview or for a final adoption. Uh, it's really at at this body's um, you know, discretion. And so I think at this point staff is just looking for uh directions on some of those uh key, you know, uh decision points such as uh insurance, are you good with the safety plan? Are you good with the local responsible agent? um those those type of of issues.

I think since the the permitted ones permit permitted ones um are more than likely probably almost 100% of them are on Airbnb and BBO and they already provide the insurance. I see that as not necessary for us. almost like what councelor pickle said like that's kind of getting really drawn down in the weeds and really you know and I don't know how that provides any more safety per se or I mean that's more on them if something goes on than it is for us but so I'm okay with removing that but I don't everything else yeah okay we certainly will make that we can make that change but

I'm just one vote so I'm in agreement with that you know also Yeah, I definitely think we need to we need to explore our further options of you know how we can enforcement options whether that is a lean or if there's some way we can I don't know if it you know legally if we can you know there's a lockout tagout kind of thing um that we could do. I mean, there has to be something that that makes these folks want to get into compliance and there has to be a way that we can say, "Okay, enough's enough." You know, um I'm not sure what that is, but that's why we have brilliant minds. Yes.

Like you folks, uh that we employ to dig into these things. Brilliant. One thing that we can do is we can look at what some of the other uh jurisdictions are doing in terms of their, you know, if they've got any better ideas and we we definitely will steal those. Um I mean, it's going to be hard to rent if you can't have electric and water at your place. Right. Well, I mean, I'm just just throwing it out there. You told you have.

Well, there's got to be some accountability is what I hear the council member saying. and we need to look at all options and we're not we're not reinventing the wheel. There's there's opportunities. I mean, we do place leans when whenever there's uh people don't we have to go in and cut their property or tear down a building. We place leans on those properties. I don't know if that's legal, but but there there needs to be some way to say this that you know, if you're not in compliance, then there's got to be some negative inducement to get in compliance, right? We do appreciate those that are in compliance and follow the rules. Yes. For sure. Yes.

So, if it's council's pleasure, we'll take the comments that we'd received uh tonight. We we'll go back and we'll rewrite the ordinance. It sounds like there's still enough discussion points that it would be beneficial to have it on for preview again. Yeah, I feel like it's on the front end that we need to do like with um with the actual like Rocky's area. If we can get that maybe nailed down a little tighter and stricter, then maybe then the police department won't have to respond as much if we can get it uh hammered down a little tighter on the front end. I mean, we and you know, we have quiet hours for our parks and for our businesses. Yeah. Um so it it wouldn't make sense what you do for these as well.

All right. Thank you everybody who worked on it and our citizens. No action set on the committees. Nope. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second. So moved.

Your motion and second aren't showing up. Forgot we logged in. I'm getting there. Oh, did we lo? Yeah. Well, some of us did. Motion by councelor Green. Second by councelor Pickle. All right, we're done.