TUSCALOOSA-- “The booze applications you just approved for the fraternity houses are far more dangerous to this community than short-term rentals," Tuscaloosa resident Louise Bellec said speaking out against the red tape city councilmembers have created surrounding short-term rentals at the council’s regular meeting on Sept. 11.
The seven members of the Tuscaloosa City Council have spent the past several months working to revise the current municipal code that makes renting your property for less than 30 nights in Tuscaloosa, illegal. Though this law has been on the books for decades, the councilmen didn’t begin enforcing the law until early 2017. Many residents who have been using their properties as game day rentals are upset over the decision to enforce these laws. Many of these frustrated residents showed up for the public City Council Meeting on Sept. 11 to air their concerns.
The meeting began with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and then went into the council voting on various ordinances. Many of the ordinances were granting fraternities on campus permission to bring a bartender to their houses for the recent Texas A&M football game. After everything had been voted on, the council members opened the floor up to public comments.
The first public comment came from Dan Lynch, who lives in Huntsville but owns a property in Tuscaloosa to rent out to families who are visiting their University of Alabama students. His concern was with the two private investigators that the city has hired to find all rental properties. These private investigators have joined closed parent groups on Facebook under false identities to search for members who have advertised a rental property. The private investigators also located rental properties and told out-of-state tenants that they are breaking the law, scaring them into staying at local hotels instead.
Another public comment came from Louise Bellec, a Tuscaloosa resident who rents out her property. She expressed her frustration with the situation and asked why it was suddenly being enforced. A council member informed her that there was concern regarding the danger of letting strangers rent property in our neighborhoods.
“The booze applications you just approved for the fraternity houses are far more dangerous to the community than short-term rentals,” Bellec said before the council. Other meeting attendees agreed, chiming in that they screen all of their renters and follow the city fire codes.
Councilman Kip Tyner, of District 5, agreed with Bellec. Tyner expressed concern with the way the current code was being enforced. He was especially concerned with the fact that the short-term rentals were currently legal in two of Tuscaloosa’s seven districts, if the owner of the property was able to show proof of a hardship to the city.
“I don’t think you should have to have a hardship to rent your own property,” Tyner said.
As the University of Alabama has increased in the number of out-of-state students, many visiting parents have sought out game day rentals to stay in for weekends at a time, avoiding hotels in the city. Lynn Hansler, from Orland Park, Illinois visited her son for the Alabama vs. LSU game in 2017. Her family stayed in a hotel in Cottondale. “Hotel rooms are very hard to get,” Hansler said, “It was extremely expensive and was outdated. We will never stay there again.”
Since their first stay in Tuscaloosa, they have been back two more times, staying in a game day condo instead. “Our experience has been great,” Hansler said about renting a condo. “What I like about it most is feeling like I’m at home. Hotels can be cold and sterile and renting a condo is so much nicer.”
Some hotel managers, like the manager of the Motel 6 said that they didn’t feel that the short-term rental laws affected their business, while other hotel managers like Ketan Patel at America’s Best Value Inn on McFarland Blvd feel that the industry has taken a hit. “It is affecting our hotel industry very much. The industry can’t take a hit like this. We have higher property taxes, higher everything than these [condos],” Patel said of the short-term rentals. “We weren’t booked last weekend. Almost no hotels were booked last weekend. For the past two or three years it’s been like this,” Patel said, in reference to the Alabama vs. Texas A&M home game, which brought many parents and fans from out-of-state.
The Tuscaloosa Zoning Board will be meeting on Oct. 3 to meet with residents who would like to apply to rent out their properties.
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