Harrisburg City Council special session on Wednesday.
It’s been over six years since Airbnb rentals started popping up in Harrisburg, but city officials are still pondering what to do with them.
At a special session on Wednesday night, City Council weighed possible options for regulating, registering and taxing short-term rentals, such as Airbnb.
According to Michael Hughes, Harrisburg’s tax and enforcement administrator, this type of rental currently falls in a “gray, unregulated area” within city code. Because of that, not all rentals pay hotel taxes, sales and mercantile taxes or are officially registered within the city, all standard practices for traditional B&Bs.
The city has hopes to address concerns from residents about certain short-term rentals causing noise complaints, parking and traffic issues and building code violations.
In 2017, Harrisburg held its first meeting on the topic, attracting a full house of local residents who voiced support for and against Airbnbs. However, no new legislation has since come forth.
Now, officials are again considering how to move forward.
“The most important thing to start with is for the council and the mayor to have a clear objective of what they’re trying to accomplish,” said Neil Grover, city solicitor. “Because there are lots of ways to do this.”
As the city weighs this decision, short-term rentals in Harrisburg have only continued to increase.
Currently, there are about 256 short-term rental units operating in the city. That number grew by 33% from last year’s number and is expected to continue to tick up at the same rate, according to research done by Granicus, a software company serving as a consultant to the city.
During the meeting, officials brainstormed options like limiting Airbnbs to certain city zones or geographic locations or requiring that they be owner-occupied. Other options, such as requiring registration with the city, charging permitting fees or mandating yearly inspections, also were discussed.
Unlike the last meeting on short-term rental six years ago, only a handful of residents attended to comment on the topic. Several residents of Harrisburg’s Shipoke neighborhood expressed frustration with the rising number of Airbnbs in their community and the impact on parking, noise and other quality of life issues.
Another resident, Grant Elledge, explained how he recently brought before the Zoning Hearing Board a proposal to establish a short-term rental in his residence.
“As someone who’s hoping to use my space for this, I want to follow all the rules. I want to pay taxes on it,” he said.
However, the proposal was denied because the board could not find any language around the rentals in the zoning code.
Grover believes that means that Elledge can establish his Airbnb, because there’s no code that restricts it.
“These issues are going to keep coming,” he said. “I do think there’s a will between the mayor’s office and council to move forward with something that is functional.”
Council President Danielle Bowers said that the next step will be to establish a task force to develop a plan moving forward.
“We can all come together collectively to ensure that we are drafting an ordinance that really meets the city’s needs,” she said.
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