City of Madison rolls out short-term rental permitting

MADISON – In June, the Madison City Council approved the permitting of short-term rentals in the city limits. A cap of .75% of the housing supply, or 190 rentals, was placed on the number of permits for short-term rentals the city can issue.

Since the passing of the ordinance, the city has received 27 applications for permits and has issued 11 permits and denied 1 permit. 15 permits are pending. So far, the city has collected $2,460 in business license revenue and $5,506 in past-due lodging taxes.

Madison currently has 57 active short-term rental listings. The city sends 3 notices to unpermitted short-term rentals before a citation with fines and fees is issued.

“I think it does kind of show that as council went through this as an informed decision, knowing what was going on in the market today and then seeing what’s actually happening and kind of what we expected, we’re actually having a huge decrease right now in the amount of permanent properties, which as a result, would probably hit a decrease in revenue from what we had currently been receiving, which we already accounted for in the budget as well,” commented District 2 councilman David Bier.

The city is considering establishing an oversight board on short-term rental permitting.

“Staff has discussed creating a board or so of a mix of five people. Someone from planning department, someone from the police department, fire department, a mayor appointee and council appointee who is knowledgeable in construction to constitute a board that would decide any kind of appeals, and if someone were to appeal that board, it would then go to city council as to kind of add another administrative step in hopes that it would help curtail more issues,” said Assistant City Attorney Shelby Morris.

An online complaint form is available for the public to submit concerns about short-term rentals. 3 substantiated complaints within 12 months result in suspension of the short-term rental permit.

“The appropriate city department investigates every complaint. So, the complaint automatically gets uploaded to Deckard and business and building gets notified. Building department will look through and see what the complaint is about and who needs to verify that complaint or address that complaint, whether it be police, zoning, building, fire, et cetera,” said Morris.

The public complaint form is available at complaints-str.deckard.com/madison- al-str-complaints. The public can also submit concerns via email at str. questions@madisonal.gov and phone at the police department’s non-emergency line at 256-722-7190.

Short-term rentals are classified as available for rent for less than 179 consecutive days at a time.

More information about short-term rentals in the city of Madison is available at www.madisonal.gov/1394/Short-Term-Rentals.