Neighbors concerned over local Airbnbs, city asks hosts to shut down
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REXBURG — Some residents in Rexburg are concerned their neighborhoods are being taken over by out-of-state vacationers — specifically those that use the online home booking service Airbnb.
Airbnb is a website business that allows residents to rent out their homes to vacationing guests from anywhere in the world. It provides steady income to home-owners and opportunities to meet people from around the world.
But neighbors say the service causes disturbances in their neighborhoods. Residents in the Indian Hills neighborhood have filed complaints with the city against fellow neighbors about their Airbnb services, and they aren’t happy.
“Every time you take a home in a stable neighborhood, and you convert that home into a rental — in particular a short-term rental unit — it basically punctures the fabric of the neighborhood,” Indian Hills resident Gary Baird said.
The issue came about after some Airbnb guests were frequenting the Indian Hills neighborhood. Community members said they noticed an abundance of out-of-state cars at certain homes, and large-scale parties, which didn’t include members of the hosting family.
“People noticed lots of different cars coming and going at different hours of the day, and not the same cars. (There was) kind of a quick turnover of cars, which seemed to be unusual. I know that in some of them there were large parties taking place,” Baird said.
On top of the objections to Airbnb, city officials also found some hosts to be in violation of a city ordinance.
“We have not ever allowed daily rentals in residential zones. Daily rentals have been defined as far back as we can find them as beds and breakfasts, or hotels, motels, and boarding houses,” city attorney Stephen Zollinger said.
The ordinance states that residents who live in a low-density residential zone are in a non-compliant zone to run an Airbnb. The Indian Hills neighborhood is considered a low-density area, along with other neighborhoods in town.
In late July, the city sent out a letter informing Airbnb hosts in low-density zones that they needed to relocate their business to a compliant zone, or shut it down. If they failed to do either, they could face possible prosecution.
Locals Lucas and Mary Handy said they’ve been running an Airbnb out of their home since the end of May. In July, they were informed they were in a non-compliant zone and had to close their doors.
The Handy’s have had at least 27 guests in their time as hosts, and said overall it was a positive experience. Lucas Handy said they were one positive review away from being listed as a “Super Hosts,” which increases a hosts credibility.
“We’ve just had some very good people. There’s a specific way to go about it to make sure you do get those good people every time,” Mary Handy said. “We learned our processes, and learned the type of people that we wanted in our home.”
Instead of traveling to other countries like they have in the past, they said having an Airbnb has allowed them to have international guests, and cultural experiences within the walls of their home.
“All of those memories and all of those great experiences that I had with these international people, I can have right here in my home, and make new friends,” Lucas Handy said.
Lucas Handy said as long as they’re abiding by the laws and ordinances of the city he believes the city shouldn’t be contacting them about anything.
“They should allow us to live our happy lives,” Handy said. “If there comes a point where we’re not good hosts for these Airbnb guests or not good neighbors that’s one thing … (but) really we’ve had wonderful experiences. We’ve stayed in Airbnb’s in Brazil and they were wonderful as well.”
Unfortunately, being accommodating hosts, and good neighbors hasn’t been enough to stop the city from enforcing an already existing ordinance.
As a longtime Indian Hills resident, Baird said it’s important to keep the integrity of the residential neighborhood, and Airbnb is detracting from that.
“It’s dissolving the underpinnings that make us a residential neighborhood,” Baird said. “The result of that is, you have people that are not invested in the neighborhood, they’re strangers.”
Along with those issues Baird said having vacation rentals close could pose safety and traffic concerns.
So far, the city has said Airbnb’s are allowed in high-density residential neighborhoods, and with a conditional use permit, in medium-density residential neighborhoods.
“What we will do with those (conditional use permits) is we’ll just go over the relevant factors to ensure that them running a business in their home will not be intrusive to their neighbors, (we’ll also look at a) parking screening of some sort. Just like we would with any other business that was trying to locate in a residential neighborhood,” Zollinger said.
As far as Airbnb’s in the county, the county commissioners aren’t aware of Airbnb issues outside of the city.
“The county is aware of the situation that the city of Rexburg is dealing with, (but) we’re unaware of any situation out in the county,” chairman Jon Weber said.
The Rexburg city council has heard public comments during meetings concerning Airbnb, but has not made any specific over-arching decision on the issue. For now city officials are continuing to push the existing ordinance and treat the issue on a case by case basis.
“We are treating it very much like a speeding ticket. We know that the rule is there, and if the violation of the rule creates a problem we will address it,” Zollinger said.