East Chattanooga leaders have plenty of concerns over how a proposed short-term vacation rental district for the city might actually work.
Monday night, two dozen community stakeholders joined Chattanooga City Council members Demetrus Coonrod and Chip Henderson at the Glenwood Youth and Family Development Center for an informal question-and-answer session on the subject.
“I’m a representative, but it’s not fair for me to make a decision for a whole district without getting everybody’s input into this issue,” Coonrod said.
As envisioned by Henderson, property owners within the district will be able to apply for permits to operate short-stay rental operations, but those outside the district will not. Existing regulations enable property owners to do this citywide but only in R-3 or R-4 zones, which also allow offices and apartments.
At the state level, legislation has gone back and forth over whether local governments could “prohibit or effectively prohibit” anyone from using their residence to make money in the blossoming short-term vacation economy, which has grown primarily through internet-based booking sites like Airbnb.