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New Orleans City Council will wait until after Mardi Gras to discuss new short-term rental rules

A sign on a Canal streetcar in January. The debate over the future of short-term rentals in New Orleans has flared up again, as the city prepares to re-write its rules governing the controversial industry.
Carly Berlin
/
WWNO
A sign on a Canal streetcar in January, by the group No STR NOLA. The debate over the future of short-term rentals in New Orleans has flared up again, as the city prepares to re-write its rules governing the controversial industry.

The New Orleans City Council will wait until after Mardi Gras to discuss new rules governing short-term rentals, like those listed on Airbnb.

According to a statement released Monday from the office of council president JP Morrell, the council will hold its next public meeting on the new regulations in early March.

The council must pass a new short-term rental law before March 31, a deadline imposed by a federal court.

Here are the dates for the upcoming meetings:

  • Thursday, March 2: Special City Council Meeting
  • Monday, March 13: Governmental Affairs Committee Meeting
  • Thursday, March 23: Regular Council Meeting (final vote on the new rules)

Morrell’s office said it will release a draft of a new short-term rental ordinance ahead of the meeting on March 2.
No public comment regarding short-term rentals will be taken at this week’s council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16, according to the release.

The city is under the gun to pass a new law after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in August 2022 that a key provision in the city’s existing law violated the U.S. Constitution.

The provision held that STR owners in residentially-zoned areas needed to prove they lived at the residence they rented out on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo by showing they had a homestead exemption for the property – essentially proving the building was their primary residence. But the court decided that measure discriminated against out-of-state investors.

Last month, the City Planning Commission recommended new ways to reign in STRs in residential neighborhoods, including capping STRs at one-per-side of the block and limiting owners to one permit. The city council will consider these recommendations at its meetings in March.

Carly Berlin is the New Orleans Reporter for WWNO and WRKF. She focuses on housing, transportation, and city government. Previously, she was the Gulf Coast Correspondent for Southerly, where her work focused on disaster recovery across south Louisiana during two record-breaking hurricane seasons. Much of that reporting centered on the aftermath of Hurricanes Laura and Delta in Lake Charles, and was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.

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