Critics not satisfied with proposed compromise in fight over neighborhood Airbnbs

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The city of Dallas Wednesday will propose a solution in the long simmering fight over vacation rentals.

They're a source of revenue for some homeowners, but many neighbors want them out of residential areas. 

"There's loud noise or there's code violations such as trash or litter or there's even worse, gunshots," said Tom Forsyth, a homeowner with the Dallas Neighborhood Coalition, who has taken complaints of parties and traffic short term rentals can attract.

The majority of rentals are run by professional hosts, according to a report by the watchdog group, Inside Air B&B, which found more than two thirds of those in Dallas have owners with multiple listings and nearly half have owners with at least five listings.

"When you have 6,000 STRs…that's a lot of housing stock that's being taken away from regular families who want to live here," said Forsyth.

At a city council briefing, Dallas city staff plans to propose allowing homes to be rented by the day in residential areas if, and only if, they are a homeowner's primary residence and there's a homestead exemption to reflect that.

It's the approach several other North Texas cities, including Addison, Colleyville, and Coppell, have taken.  Fort Worth and Grapevine have banned all vacation rentals from residentially zoned areas, while Southlake has banned them citywide and Arlington has limited them to residential areas within a mile of its entertainment district.

"It's great in theory," said council member Paul Ridley, of distinguishing between rentals that are occupied by an owner and those who are not.  He believes, though, the proposal would be nearly impossible to enforce because of the ease with which homestead exemptions can be obtained.

There's no statewide database to track these exemptions and, he says, he's heard anecdotally of people being able to illegally obtain exemptions on multiple homes.

"That's a huge loophole that the investors are going to drive a truck through, claim they're all owner occupied, and therefore are permitted," said Ridley.

He would like to see zoning rules that bar short term rentals from residential neighborhoods altogether and treat them just like hotels. Forsyth is hoping other council members agree.

"We're hoping city council has some tough questions tomorrow," he said.