Sep 29, 2016
Waco vacation rental boom creates permitting backlog
WACO - Waco city planners are scrambling to catch up with Waco’s hottest cottage industry: online vacation rentals.City staffers in early September sent letters to 47 proprietors of short-term house rentals,...
WACO - Waco city planners are scrambling to catch up with Waco’s hottest cottage industry: online vacation rentals.
City staffers in early September sent letters to 47 proprietors of short-term house rentals, advertised on sites such as Homestay, Airbnb and VRBO, and told them they need to get special zoning permits and pay occupancy taxes.
Those websites allow the public to rent everything from Baylor University-area student condos to suburban ranch houses to an Airstream trailer in the Cameron Park area.
The special permit, which costs $300 and lasts at least one year, spells out parking requirements and any conditions that planning officials may choose to add.
At least six of the listed properties were renovated on “Fixer Upper,” the HGTV show whose runaway success has contributed to a land rush for “homestay” properties in Waco.
“We do call it the Magnolia effect,” City Planner Beatriz Wharton said. “Obviously, there’s a lot more tourism coming in now. At the same time, vacation rentals in general are a lot more popular.”
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