Carmel tries to squash Airbnb listings
The city of Carmel has issued a warning to residents who list their homes or apartments on the home-stay network Airbnb: You are in violation of the city's zoning ordinances.
In a letter sent to residents Tuesday, Carmel building commissioner Jim Blanchard notified homeowners that they must remove their homes from Airbnb or similar websites within 10 days or face further action from the city's code enforcement inspector. They can file a request for a zoning variance.
Airbnb is a housing network that allows travelers or tourists to temporarily rent homes, apartments or rooms in cities worldwide. More than 2 million properties are listed in more than 190 countries, according to the company's website.
As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 300 spaces listed as available for rent on Airbnb in the Carmel area. The accommodations range for a single room for $55 to a 7,000-square-foot home that is available for Indianapolis 500 weekend for $5,000 per night.
Blanchard said in the letter that the use of Airbnb or similar networks in spaces zoned as single family residential is "unfair" to local businesses and neighbors.
“Businesses such as our local hotels must invest a lot of money to meet the requirements of their zoning and be able to legally operate as a hotel," the letter states. "Because of that, we don’t believe it is fair to our hotels to allow someone to operate a competing business when they are not held to that same higher standard of construction because of their zoning classification.”
The letter said that zoning benefits residents by separating residential areas and commercial areas, allowing homeowners a "reasonable expectation that they can enjoy peace and quiet in their homes." Businesses in a commercial zone also have higher construction and parking requirements.
"Your home is an area that is classified as a Residential Single Family zone, which means you are welcome to use your home as a residence," the letter states. "But you are not able to suddenly turn it into a restaurant, a dry-cleaning business, factory or — as is apparently the case now — a hotel or bed-and-breakfast. Doing so would be unfair to your neighbors and to our local businesses and would be contrary to the community's zoning laws."
A bill recently introduced in the Indiana House of Representatives, however, is trying to preempt these local bans.
House Bill 1133, authored by Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne, hopes to preempt local bans on rentals shorter than 30 days.
Lehman said the bill wouldn't take away control from local governments. He said he is trying to find the balance between the rights of Indiana residents to use their property as they please and protecting home rule.
"This is an attempt to thread that needle," he told The Associated Press. "We want to allow this emerging technology to continue."
According to the bill, cities and towns in the state could still impose laws regulating public safety and sanitation if "enforcement does not prohibit the use of a property as a short-term rental." The bill allows homeowners associations to have limits on rental units.
The House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee added an amendment that would require a $1 million liability insurance policy for such rentals. The coverage could be a separate policy or an endorsement or rider to the traditional homeowners' policy.
Katie Maddox of the Indiana Restaurant & Lodging Association said she supports the insurance amendment, but is concerned about the bill overall. She said the group supports property owners' rights to occasionally rent space, but said some are doing it year-round and "basically running illegal hotels out of their houses."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.
Read the full letter from the city of Carmel here:
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