 quick agenda. This is me welcome introductions. You're going to hear from Assistant City Manager Dana Bergdorf in a minute. She's going to go over short-term rentals and give you a quick briefing about what some of the draft recommendations are. Then I'll come back. I'll go over speaker guidelines and logistics for this evening. Let all of you who have signed up to speak know what that's going to look like today so we can have a good smooth meeting and then you'll all have an opportunity to provide two minutes of comments. So let us know if you have any questions along the way and with that I'll hand it over to Dana to give a briefing on short-term rentals. I'm sorry our additional engagement opportunity as I mentioned a minute ago. So there's today in person this Thursday we have an online virtual option where you can call text email or tweet between six and eight p.m. that will be live streamed on several platforms as well and in a non-meeting fashion there are also several other ways to engage. If you go to the city's website FortworthTexas.gov slash STR there's a questionnaire at the bottom where you can submit information there you can email fw connection at FortworthTexas.gov or participate in the anonymous thought exchange that we have so those will be ongoing for the next several weeks as well. Oh gosh there's a picture of me. Hello good evening everybody Dana Burgdorff I'm an assistant city manager with this city of Fort Worth and got into that position in March of 2020. Prior to that I was an assistant director with the development services department where one of my duties was zoning and so that's why I'm here before you this evening is working with our development services department code compliance law communications finance and I believe that's it I think I've hit all the departments that were represented. So I wanted to share with you the presentation that's online that was posted a few weeks ago on short-term rental regulation. It's titled draft because the presentation isn't a draft but the regulations that are proposed and the zoning options are draft because we were asked by the mayor and council to bring them to the public to get input and bring back to the council in August. So what I wanted to do is go over with you the current short-term rental regulations in Fort Worth, address our goals as a city for addressing short-term rentals, review the proposed registration and operating standards for legal short-term rentals, address the zoning regulations that we've found in other cities, and then also to look at the four zoning options that staff has identified for addressing short-term rentals that are operating illegally in Fort Worth. So what is a short-term rental? It's a residential property that's available for rent for guest lodging for a period of one to 29 days. So one of the questions that sometimes comes up is can I rent my property in residential zoning and the answer is yes if it's for a 30 day period or longer. So that's a month-to-month rental or say a six-month lease or a one-year lease. That's all rental, residential rental and that's allowed by right in all of our residential zoning districts. But once that rental period is less than 30 days, then that falls into a different category of lodging and so that's why it's treated differently in the zoning ordinance in Fort Worth and in other cities. So currently in Fort Worth we allow short-term rental by right in all of our mixed use and form-based code districts. Those are districts that allow both residential and commercial uses. In some cases they might also even allow industrial uses and then we also allow them by right in our commercial and industrial zoning districts. Those are all districts where we allow hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and other lodging by right and so that's how we're treating short-term rentals is like those other lodging uses. So those lodging uses are not allowed in our residential zoning districts and if you're familiar with Fort Worth zoning typologies you'll see the A, B, C, D that's our alphabet zoning that we've used since 1940 along with some newer categories that have been created since then. So we have a map that I'll show you briefly but you'll want to look at online if you're interested in learning about zoning for your property or zoning in your neighborhood or for other parts of the city. Next is zoning enforcement and so as with most occupancies, zoning enforcement is done on a complaint basis so that's true whether it's related to short-term rental, whether it's related to the number of unrelated people living in a home, whether it's related to some other home business, whether that's related to other kinds of occupancy, the way the city operates is on a complaint basis. So when violations are observed or when there's a call that comes in, code can then issue warnings and or citations to the property owners. The city currently cannot issue warnings or citations based on a short-term rental being advertised in a residential zoning district even though that use is not allowed in that residential zoning. So based on the advertisement or even the online booking is not sufficient for code to issue a warning or a violation. They actually have to approve that the short-term rental activity occurred, that it was a stay that was less than 30 days, that it was not, you know, that it wasn't just a guest of that property owner and that they paid for that booking and made that payment arrangement. So in fiscal year 2021 which for us is October 1 of 2020 through September 30th of 2021, for that fiscal year there were 71 code compliance cases requiring 278 inspections. So that gives you an idea of the amount of work that it requires today for code compliance to determine if short-term rental is occurring. So this map shows the zoning districts where short-term rental is allowed by right. So the areas in green are those areas that are zoned mixed-use, commercial or industrial and then the gray would generally be residential zoning or in some cases it may be it's agricultural or community facility or something else. But if you go to the presentation that if you look at these slides online you'll be able to go to those interactive maps and look up zoning for particular parts of the city and learn more about zoning for properties that you might be interested in. So also related to our current short-term regulations separate from zoning state and city ordinances require that short-term rental operators and property owners pay hotel occupancy tax because again under state law and city ordinance it's a form of lodging and so there are levies for hotel occupancy tax that the state levies and that the city levies and the revenues that the city receives go into what's called the culture and tourism fund and so those dollars can only be used to promote tourism convention and hotel industries. We're not able to use hotel occupancy tax revenue to assist with monitoring or enforcement of short-term rental. With regard to the collection of hotel occupancy tax currently hotel occupancy tax is self-reported by property owners using the city's online reporting tool. It's a hotel app and the short-term rentals report on a voluntary basis and are not monitored by our finance department so that's an issue that we're looking to address. So here we've got goals for addressing short-term rentals. You'll see the first one is to preserve the residential quality of neighborhoods and protect from commercial lodging encroachment. Does that mean that no short-term rental activity could ever occur in a residential neighborhood? No. That just means that that's a policy decision for the zoning commission and the city council to consider what's that right balance to ensure that residential quality is maintained so that if someone comes in for a zoning change they will need to consider what's the context, what's the location, can we preserve residential quality and still allow this activity to occur. Number two is to ensure health and safety of guests and residents and so that's one of the things that we hope to help address with our registration and operating standards for legal short-term rentals. Next is to support tourism in a balanced way. We've seen short-term rentals across the country, the demand for them increase across the country and really the world and so what does that mean for Fort Worth? We're not necessarily like other cities that you might compare us to but there's certainly some that we're similar to and so how are they addressing tourism, how are they addressing that demand and what does that mean for Fort Worth? Are we generally in a good place or is there anything we might want to change? Next is to preserve the residential housing supply so many of you know that affordable housing is becoming more and more of a challenge within all cities but as you've seen property tax values increase greatly over the years even while the city maybe has reduced our tax rate that doesn't mean that your tax burden has gone down that the tax burden has gone up as values have gone up significantly and so we you know preserving housing supply as well as affordable housing supply is something our council is interested in. Next is to collect the hotel occupancy tax from legal short-term rentals in accordance with state law and city ordinance and then finally and probably least importantly but still important to staff is to minimize the impact on staff and recover costs for code enforcement because again occupancy and that enforcement is can be can be challenging. So the city staff referenced the National League of Cities guide for short-term rentals and again if you go to the website and view this presentation you will be able to collect that link and get to that guide. What we did is just pulled out some of the policy levers that are cited in that guide to help cities who are trying to achieve certain goals for short term rentals. So the first one that we picked out was to require annual permit and registration and have a process to revoke permits for folks who might not who might violate city ordinances. Next is to consider requiring host residency or owner occupancy in residential areas if the short-term rental is to be allowed whether through zoning change or other process. Most complaints come from non-owner occupied units that doesn't mean that all non-owner occupied units are bad operators. It's just that on average across the country the National League of Cities has determined that more tend to come from non-owner occupied units. Next is to consider restricting the density of short-term rentals in a particular residential neighborhood or geographic area again if you're to allow them and then lastly to dedicate resources to enforcement. So this is the registration and operating standards page with a list to a whole host of items that I'll walk through and again the idea would be that short-term rentals that are in that are operating legally would register with the city and then be held to these operating standards. They would need to pay an annual fee. We're intending to hire a third-party platform to help us with that registration to help us with communications with property owners to process complaints and the like and so we'd like to have the fee cover that platform cost and then enforcement cost for the for the city. That platform would then that registration would help with hotel occupancy tax collection and be the vehicle for us to obtain those those revenues. The property owners would need to register for short term rental or provide their consent if there is an operator who's going to register that property and that registration would be non-transferable. So if a different operator came in or excuse me if the property was sold it would not be transferable. We would require a 24-7 local contact for any emergencies or complaint responses would require liability insurance require an affidavit for safety protocols. We've seen examples on other cities you know having appropriate smoke and CO2 detectors fire sprinklers and the like on on site. We would limit the use of a dwelling to one guest or group at a time so it wouldn't be able to rent out say one room to one group of people in another room to another group of people in the garage to another group of people it would just be one one guest or group for that property. We limit to three people per bedroom up to a maximum of nine people. This is the current standard within our bed and breakfast regulations. So again this is something that folks may may want to debate. Next is on-site parking that you would only be able to allow your guests to park on the site not on the street so you'd have to have sufficient parking for your guests and then we would require a parking plan to be submitted with the registration. We would not allow events or parties within the within the dwelling units and not allow outdoor gatherings or music after 10 p.m. We would require a good neighbor guide to comply with the city ordinances and just good practice as neighbors dealing with noise, trash, parking and so on. We've done a similar good neighbor guide in the TCU area where we have rental registration requirements and occupancies within single family homes for students and have that good relationship with landlords TCU and the residents. That next item is important for code compliance so that advertising for a short-term rental would require registration so that would allow our code compliance officers when they learn about an advertisement say on Airbnb or VRBO or some other platform to follow up with that property owner to say hey you need to register and then they would be able to determine okay in order to register am I in the correct zoning and then take action from there. And then lastly the registration could be placed on probation or potentially revoked based on violations of the short-term rental ordinance or certain egregious offenses of other ordinances. The other thing we'd like to do and this is a modeled off the city of Denver is to require advertising platforms the again Airbnb, VRBO and others to only allow advertising for short-term rentals in Fort Worth that are registered with the city of Fort Worth. And then lastly we would require a certificate of occupancy as we do for bed and breakfasts when a short-term rental is not simply a primary residence where the short-term rental uses is occasional but where the primary use is commercial lodging. And then again we would apply those bed and breakfast building and fire code requirements. So I'm going to switch from registration to zoning the cities that we've reviewed most of them differentiate a primary residence short-term rental or owner occupied short-term rental from investor-owned short-term rentals. They tend to be more restrictive with investor-owned and then related to that they most of them require a zoning change or a conditional use permit for an investor-owned short-term rental to operate in single family districts they tend to be more protective of their single family zoning districts and this these are consistent with the National League of Cities guidance that I mentioned previously. So this may be a little hard to read for folks but again go online so you can get into some of the details but we've got examples from cities in Texas and then some examples from similarly sized cities outside of Texas. You'll see that first column is whether or not they differentiate between a primary residence or an investor-owned short-term rental and again many of them do. Next is whether they require a zoning change or a conditional use permit for investor-owned short-term rental in single family or whether they allow by right and again most requires some kind of zoning action. The next column is a few of them do limit density perhaps to a percentage of a block or have a a certain distance separation requirement so a few of them have a density limitation and then lastly City of Arlington which is a unique case and because of the excuse me the stadiums and arenas and other entertainment venues in Arlington they've chosen to create a geographic zone where short-term rental is allowed around around those entertainment destinations and generally to to not allow it in in other parts of the city. The other thing I want to mention is Charlotte, North Carolina their ordinance is on hold due to a North Carolina state Supreme Court case regarding short-term rentals and property rights and then lastly this the states of Arizona Florida and Indiana have preempted municipal authority to regulate short-term rentals through zoning or other land use standards. So with regard to the zoning options for addressing the short-term rentals that want to register but would if they're unable to do so because they're they're in residential zoning we've identified four zoning options for city council consideration including retaining the current zoning ordinance for for short-term rentals so that would be option one. I'll point out that none of the options would allow short-term rental as the main use of the residential property by right meaning that that it's primarily a commercial lodging use within the residential zoning district so that would still require a zoning change or a conditional use permit and then lastly the zoning changes and conditional use permits for those who may not be familiar with those processes they require public hearings and votes by the zoning commission and the city council there's an application fee we provide notice to property owners within 300 feet we provide notice to registered community organizations within a half mile the zoning commission holds a public hearing and votes to provide a recommendation and then that recommendation is taken to the city council for their public hearing and and final vote so they're considered on a case-by-case basis for each use zoning change request that comes forward so option one as I mentioned is to retain the current ordinance where we would continue to require that if someone owned short-term rental property in residential zoning and wanted to register with the city they would be required to go through a zoning change for that short-term rental use and their options would be to what would often occur is to have a PD for a plan development which what that means is that gives you the option to retain your single-family zoning or your two-family zoning or multi-family zoning but then you might add short-term rental as an additional use within that within that zoning request so it's a zoning that's specific to that property that's created at that time so plan development zoning is a specific zoning for that site the other option might be that if you have residential zoning that's near a mixed-use district or near a commercial district then it might be an option to consider mixed-use zoning or commercial zoning for that site if it's reasonable to consider that given the location of the property so that's option one option two would be to treat the short-term rentals like bed and breakfast bed and breakfasts we have two types of bed and breakfasts we have a bed and breakfast home which is owner-occupied and then we have a bed and breakfast in which is non-owner-occupied so similarly you could treat owner-occupied short-term rentals like owner-occupied bed and breakfast homes we require a conditional use permit with a five-year time limit for bed and breakfast homes and you can only apply for a conditional use permit for a bed and breakfast home if you're in B2 family family or other multi-family zoning. So you would be unable to apply for a conditional use permit within single family zoning if we treat them like bed and breakfast homes. And then the city council would then, in considering those bed and breakfast homes, would apply the 400 foot separation. So that speaks to the density issue. So that's in our current ordinance today for bed and breakfast homes. Then next would be the investor-owned short-term rentals, and so to treat them similarly to bed and breakfast ins. Again, the conditional use permit with a five-year time limit would be required. And then again, not allowed in single family zoning. And those property owners could only apply for a conditional use permit if they're in high-density multi-family zoning. Again, that's how we treat bed and breakfast ins today outside of mixed-use, commercial, and industrial districts. So we would continue to require a zoning change for any short-term rental activity, owner-occupied, or investor-owned in single family zoning. So option three is a little bit more permissive in that it would allow owner-occupied short-term rentals by conditional use permit in all residential districts. So you'd be able to apply for that conditional use permit in single family zoning, as well as two-family and multi-family. The idea would be that we would suggest that the city council consider a density limit of five to 10% as they're considering these permits in residential neighborhoods. And so that five to 10% is again debatable on whether to have a density limit and then also what that limit might be. Next would be to allow the investor-owned short-term rentals by conditional use permit in all of the multi-family districts, not just the high-density multi-family districts. Again, suggesting that density cap. And then lastly, excuse me, continue to require a zoning change for all other situations. And then lastly, option four is the most permissive that the staff is offering, but again, the city council can consider more permissive options. Staff is suggesting that the fourth option would be to allow owner-occupied short-term rentals by right in certain neighborhoods or city-wide. This would be the most permissive option that staff is suggesting could be considered. So that would be the conversation with council. We've heard from a few council members that they'd rather not have different rules for different parts of the city, that they'd rather treat all neighborhoods the same. So that'll be up for discussion. But that in order to allow the owner-occupied short-term rentals by right that there be restrictions, that the density limit do be applied so that it protects the housing supply and that there be fewer than 30 booking nights per year. And again, that can be debated as well. 30 booking nights, roughly 15 weekends a year, or say four weeks in a year. And the reason for that limitation is to ensure that it's an accessory use to the primary residential use of the property. And so that's why that could be considered as a by-right option. And then consider, or excuse me, or require a conditional use permit or zoning change for all other situations. So that ends the presentation of the information that's on the website. So I'll turn it back over to Amethyst. For the comments section, thank you all. All of you who are signed up to speak should have a yellow card. I just want to go over kind of the process for today and how that's going to work and what you need to look at and go when it wants to be your time to speak. So just to reiterate, each speaker will have two minutes to provide comments. You'll provide it here from the podium, right over here to the left is a two-minute timer that you'll be able to look at here. And at the end of your two minutes, you'll hear a ding, because you can use them for me. And that'll be the end of your time to speak. Just so you're aware, so you can watch that clock. Each speaker may only speak once. If you have any unused time, you can't delegate that to another speaker. We're gonna call you in numeric order and we're asking, so if you're not available when you're called, we're gonna move to the next speaker and go forth at your time to speak tonight. When your number is coming up, if you're in the next two or three, we're gonna ask you to line up over here at the top of this area, kind of where Valerie is back there in the red dress, that will keep things flowing this evening. So everyone gets there two minutes to speak and we can all get out of here and hopefully get to bed at a good time. Let's see. Again, be respectful of other speakers or attendees. We're glad you're here. We're looking forward to hearing your comments and opinions on the issue. And please be sure to let us know or there are a couple of folks in the hallway as well if you have any questions along the way. Okay, and with that, I'm gonna head back, switch our presentation real quick. You'll also be able to see on all of the monitors what number is speaking right now so you can prepare yourself to know if you have time or if it's time to get in line. And with that, we'll keep going. So the first three speakers, number one, two, and three, and each one I'll call the number and your name as soon as I get back to where they're at. Okay, we wanna make sure our timer works. Okay, so speaker one, Janelle Simmons, and then on deck number two, Mike Holt, three, Doreen Geiger. Okay, my name is Janelle Simonson and we bought our house in District 7 in October of 2020. We bought a home in Fort Worth because our daughter lives here and so does our brother-in-law. We spend half our time here and we spend half our time in North Dakota. When we're not here, we rent out our home. We're a five-star super host with Airbnb and we have not had one issue at our place. Mayor Parker recently posted, I am proud to lead a city that empowers and supports new and existing businesses, innovation, economic growth, and opportunity beginning in Fort Worth. And that is exactly what I and others are trying to do with our short-term rentals. It has allowed us to employ our daughter as a cleaner and manager. We employ Fort Worth small business owners to do our yard work best spring, as well as home maintenance. We are employing and bringing people to Fort Worth and we are spending money in Fort Worth. We've had many people that live in Dallas, Fort Worth, rent from us. One family rented when their house was being painted and their daughter can only get around by scooting on the ground. Several of our neighbors' relatives from Ottertown have rented from us to be close to family. A young woman from the East Coast rented to visit friends. She loved our area so much that now she has decided to move right down the road from us. Just as the city of Fort Worth has chosen to have a delegation from the Republic of Georgia stay and host homes instead of a cramped hotel room, we encourage you to allow others to make a choice of where they wanna stay when they come to Fort Worth. If one of your children breaks a rule, you don't punish all the children. If somebody is running a short-term rental and you're receiving complaints, deal with them. Don't make Fort Worth an unfriendly community to homeowners like me and to people that wanna rent for the short term. About 50% of the homes in my neighborhood are long-term rentals. They do not take care of their home as we do. I can tell you each short-term rental person is reviewed and we ask that you consider other options for the short-term rental and don't lump us all into one basket. Thank you. Figure two, Mike Holt. Good evening. My name's Mike Holt. I live in Crestwood. I believe there's a little over 450 residential homes in Crestwood. If there is a short-term rental, I don't think we're aware of it. But Mary will tell you in just a little while the one time we did have one and that was a nightmare. And I guess maybe I'm unlucky because I have one other home that's in a residential neighborhood out on Lake Worth. And I can tell you that about a year and a half ago, one of my neighbors called me and said, Mike, you need to get here quick. And I got there and there might have been a hundred cars parked around and they had broken into my home, which is next door to it. And they had gotten in my hot tub and they had lit my chiminea. And I decided I'm gonna deal with this. My neighbor said, you can't do it. There's too many of them. Well, I was fortunate because there were eight guys who showed up in sweat vests, look a lot like this guy right here and they took care of things. Now, you can say to me all day long that that does not happen if you have a good owner. I left two doors down from one. You're gonna hear that nightmare. I live one door down from this one. I don't need it. At the end of the day, to me, I'm an ex banker. To me, what this is is about money versus neighborhood. And I lived a long time in Fort Worth and it's grown a lot. And I don't even remember when I first time heard the STR word, but I don't need it. And I do not need it in Crestwood. It is a neighborhood. And to have the thought of having a motel next to your house with kids, it's just in today's times when we're trying to take care of the kids. And there's a lot of things. By the way, that only happened one time, but they're disastrous. We don't need it. Thank you very much. Three, Doreen Geiger. Doreen Geiger, Council District Three. Four, option number one. Please keep short-term rentals out of Fort Worth zoned residential neighborhoods. According to the National Association of Religious in 2021, 50% of single family houses in Tarrant County were sold to investors, corporations and companies who are not people moving into these homes. Some of these houses have been purchased by flippers who may sell the properties to use as STRs. Platforms like Airbnb, Verbo, et cetera, have taken over 100,000 homes out of the US residential market. The housing crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. The cost of renting or buying a home has far outpaced wage growth. It's making cities unaffordable for the people who make them thrive. Short-term rentals serve the needs of investors and speculators rather than Fort Worth residents wanting to buy or rent a house long-term in the community where they live, work and study. A city can change quickly. Look at Austin, Texas. Since the 2020 census, the number of STRs in Austin has increased from 12,000 to 17,000. If STRs are made legal in zoned residential neighborhoods, the floodgates will open. Instead of three STRs in your neighborhood, there could be three STRs on your block. Family-friendly neighborhoods are a force strength. As our neighborhoods decline, so will our city. Daniel Hayes. Good evening, I'm Daniel Hayes. I live in council district eight. There have been any number of debatable, anecdotal or theoretical statements on both sides of the short-term rental issue and more will be heard tonight and on Thursday. But there's one fact for which there is no debate and that is this, short-term rentals reduce the amount of housing available to home buyers and traditional renters in Fort Worth. Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in America and we already have a housing shortage. Everybody knows that. The need is especially critical when it comes to affordable housing as Dana mentioned earlier. If the city makes a policy change or relaxes its existing ordinance, it will undoubtedly have the unintended consequence of exacerbating the housing shortage by encouraging more investment in short-term rentals. Unlike shoes or another commodity, the lead time for development of new housing could not possibly keep up with the double whammy of growth and existing housing being converted to short-term rentals. This situation has the potential to dramatically increase the number of people who find themselves on the brink of homelessness simply because there's nothing available they can afford to buy or rent. This can be demoralizing. Losing the ability to house yourself and your family is a big step in losing hope and dignity and that can result in psychological and social problems that we're already too familiar with. Deep-pocketed short-term rental investors are exploiting a business model in a way not originally intended which can have a direct impact on some of the most vulnerable of our population. Just as ripples spread out from a single pebble, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects. Number five, Alicia Gonzalez. Hi there, I'm Alicia Gonzalez and I was born and raised in DFW. I work in IT from home in Riverside and wherever life takes me. People like me with modern lifestyles want safe, clean and hospitable options to stay in for time periods and reasons that hotels and the current short-term rental options do not suit. We locals also want to be able to leverage our real estate and passion for hospitality for investment purposes and growing our family. The green zones are often hospitals and warehouses. Those districts are uninhabitable for STRs. Please do require registration, IDs, local contact security cameras, fines for proven nuisances and take our taxes. We STR hosts our local ambassadors who actually will gladly join together to volunteer to help the city with steady and safe growth of this modern industry. Please don't steer it into being a black market. Not good for anyone. I've been a host and a guest many times these past couple of years for various reasons and have the receipts to prove it. In 2020, I was still living and hosting in California, but I needed to rent an STR in Olympia, Washington for a couple of weeks to be near my best friend who was dying from cancer. In 2021, I rented STRs here locally to help my brother move our dependent mom into a nursing home. Those expenses are almost $6,000 a month. We did turn our house into a long-term rental, but it's not helping. We're drowning. We would like to invest in and self-run an STR with our small family LLC to help offset more of her costs and set up college funds for my two nephews. I'm currently a host here in Fort Worth and I'm proud I'm a good one. Stephanie, a nurse from Ukraine stayed with me here locally two and a half weeks under my roof in late spring in advance of her husband and kids to start her new job and prep for the move into their new home. She spent most of her time in my backyard reading. Peacefully. Thank you. Thank you. Number six, Tony Perez. Good evening, everybody. I'm Tony Perez. District two soon to be District seven. I am here to talk about supporting no change to our current zoning restrictions on short-term rentals. I come to you with a unique perspective from being a city resident for 13 years, a city volunteer in three different areas. My Chisholm Ridge HOA board, I've been a board member for nine out of the last 10 years. I'm also vice president of the North Fort Worth Alliance and a realtor with over 27 years experience in the industry. All right, an article from the Economic Policy Institute on January 30th of 2019 supports my question for tonight. Do short-term rentals bring any actual value to communities? Article mentions absentee owners that don't face the cost of noise or stress on neighborhoods infrastructure such as parking, traffic, maintenance. Absentee owners have less incentive to make sure renters are respectful of neighbors and there's not an excess number of people occupying their properties. Circumstances are likely to be worse when renters are short-term because SDR renters have little incentive to improve conditions because profit can be seductive. Some Airbnb hosts have been found to even be long-term renters in a property but subletting the property to short-term travelers which may actually shield property owners from the reality of what's going on. Imagine neighbors end up bearing the costs. In cities where short-term SDRs are allowed to be widespread, hundreds of thousands of complaints are received, it affects externalities, rise to the point of degrading desirability in neighborhoods. That can lead to reduced rents and home values. And our law enforcement professionals will tell you how that affects crime. My professional experience as a realtor tells me long-term renters alone can be a handful for code enforcement departments but the current handful of short-term rentals by comparison to what people want is providing to be an overwhelming challenge for code enforcement in the city. So in my own neighborhood, we had a non-authorized illegal Airbnb about two years ago that resulted in a shooting. There was a house party and apparently some people didn't like not being invited. Just lucky nobody passed away on that one. Let's keep it the way it is. Thank you. Number seven, Pastor Michael Moore. My name is Pastor Michael Moore and I live in District Five, which is known as Historic Stop Six. I'm here tonight to remind the city that in 1920, the city was awarded $35 million to give toward the Historic Stop Six for a choice community. A community that had been deprived and people were basically afraid to live in Stop Six because of one place that was a community nuisance. The community now is a thriving community. Families are moving back in the community. And the community that I grew up in is the community that I'm attempting to help that community to become again. That community needs to be based on families and not on rentals. Not rentals where people are renting every night. In my community, I'm not close to an entertainment district. So the properties in my community are gonna be used for party houses. Well, we have a gun problem in this country. And in my community, sometimes there are shots being fired. When I call 911, sometimes on the weekend you get a recorder. And the recorder says that the police is gonna call you back. Well, in an emergency, who can wait for the police to call you back? So the ordinance needs to protect neighbors and communities and property values and the safety of its citizens. And so I'm encouraging this city to remember that you are awarded $35 million for the revitalizing of a choice community, which is Historic Stop Six. Thank you very much. Number eight, Milton Thornton. Hello city staffers and fellow citizens. My name is Phil Thornton, I live in district two. I was gonna plan on showing pictures on the slides, but I don't have them. They're not set up for that tonight. Anyway, our short-term rental is on the opposite corner from us. It is in one of the poor neighborhoods in the city and its supplements are fixed income. We're not just good neighbors, but have made it substantial improvement to the area. And those two pictures, one shows the picture and the other is the parking, which is secure and off the street. And then I would like my brother to show you this is the home pictures of home three houses down from us, number three and four. The city has been trying to get the property in compliance with codes, trying to get it in compliance for close to a decade. Which of these would you rather have as a neighbor? Our short-term rental for that one. Our group did a survey that shows 67% of the people would not visit the city if there was no STR available. The reason is being mainly financial and the preference for a home. The pins on the map and picture number five reflect the number of visitors who chose to stay in our STR instead of a hotel. At the last council meeting, I heard a lot of anti-STR settlement and I hear some tonight. A few of the complaints are legitimate and justified, many were not. The crime sets in 2021 show that out of 330,000 police calls, 26 mentioned of those calls mentioned STRs. So you're more likely to have problems with a long-term renter or a homeowner than you are in STR. As far as the lack of housing caused by STRs, the law of supply and demand will remedy this. You gotta believe in capitalism because I mean, we've never had supply always met demand. And I know the realtors are upset because they're not getting, they're not having enough houses to sell. Thank you. Thank you, Phil. Thanks for putting a face to that. Number nine, Jack Bowen. I live in the Chisholm Ridge neighborhood, South, that's a valiance area. Two years ago, a mob at an illegal B&B blocked pepperage lane and other houses, driveways. People puked on sidewalks. They littered like it was a city dump. And a rival group then does a drive-by. Multiple people wounded. A dog trampled to death. Several damper's fences knocked down by the fleeing mob. Councilman Flores, city staff can show you a video we did that made him so mad he got involved to shut that place down. Now the industry knowingly aiding and abetting illegal STRs has de facto lobbyists telling you, trust us, we've been breaking the law, but we'll do right by you. As for collecting revenue from registered STRs, code compliance gives warnings first so people can then comply without ever being fined. So my registers save money. Wait to see if you ever get turned in. My neighborhood streets 27 feet wide. Cars park both sides, most places, especially at night. One vehicle can get through at a time. An illegal STR on a cul-de-sac on Pheasant Run Trail last year had so many oversized vehicles the trash truck couldn't pick up at six houses. The owner ignored even fines. The city attorney finally had to file charges to shut it down. Our average lots, 50 feet wide, including driveway room for one car on the street in front of each house. If one's there, it's blocking a mailbox. Mail can't be delivered. I intentionally bought single family residential. When I wanna be in commercial lodging areas, I'll buy close to it. Let this genie out of the bottle, putting them in single family residential. The courts have ruled you can't put it back in. The media's future stories will grab comments like mine tonight and say they told yourself. Number 10, Cassie Warren. Hi, y'all. My name is Cassie Warren and I'm in support of short-term rentals. I am a proud entrepreneur. I'm proud because my kids know that I'm a hard worker. And I work really hard for what we own. And I have so much pride in ownership. And it is very sad to me that right now, people are shining a very bad light on entrepreneurs, investors, LLCs and corporations because these are just individuals. And yes, these individuals can have bad traits and they can have good traits. But you know what? The bad ones, they won't do well and their businesses will get shut down. But the good ones will do well. But at least give them a chance. And if they have a good product and a good, and it's needed, we'll all enjoy that product. And this leads me to STRs. We all agree, both sides, that they are needed in Fort Worth. What we disagree on is where they should be located. And my proposition is this, that none of us, even city council, will be able to answer that question properly because where they're needed is always gonna change. It's gonna change with the needs of the city. So what I ask is that when the city staff is considering a new ordinance, they do not limit where STRs are located. HOAs already do this. And they don't do this for long-term rentals. Allow flexibility so that it can change with the needs of the community. Thank you. Number 11, Donald Crosby. Hi, I'm Don Crosby. I am a short-term rental host in the area and I have been for the last three years. I am a, what's considered a super host, meaning I do a good job at it and I take care of the people that come and stay at our homes. Many of you, even those that are not in favor of short-term rentals in our area, have probably used short-term rentals before. In fact, I was talking with the gentleman that was here before the banker that stayed and he said he was in Utah, staying in a great big home with a lot of his family. And I said, oh, I guess it must've been a short-term rental. Yeah, he didn't like the fact that I had to mention that he stayed in a short-term rental because we all stay in short-term rentals and we all want them to be available. I don't see the time going down, so it must've been to have two more minutes. We've got one going. Well, I can't see it, so I have no idea what it is. Okay. Yes, some people find that to be funny. We'll restart it, we've got one back here too, back up. Oh, okay. Melfunction. One more minute. Okay, great. We're a mom-and-pop business. My wife and I, by the way, I thought it was interesting that the banker was lecturing people about deep pockets and money, the fact that we're in it for the money. Well, nobody does anything for money, but not for money. Everybody's in it to take care of themselves. Everybody does a job. You go to a job each week. The Reverend has a stipend from his business, from his being a pastor. He has to support his family. We support our family like this by providing a good place for your families to come and stay when they need to. If you've ever owned a property, you know that there are renters that are for over 30 days. Well, we rent to people that are on a shorter basis. We can't really distinguish between those people. They're all good people anyway. They're just coming there. The other gentleman before said, hey, look, we've got a place that's nearby to our house that's not very well taken care of and theirs is. Looks like my time is out. I just wanna tell you that we're grateful for the opportunity to live in this great city of Fort Worth. We're all Fort Worthians and we hope that we can come together to come up with a good solution. Thank you. 12th, Samantha Newman. Let us test our timer real quick before you get started. So we have one back here. We'll give you a ding at 30 seconds. So you have 30 seconds left and another one when you're finished. Thank you. My name is Samantha Newman. I purchased my home on the east side of Fort Worth in 2009. The following October, ABC News reported that there was a one in 10 chance that I'd be the victim of a violent crime because I was living in the 15 most dangerous zip code in the United States. I'm proud to say that we're no longer even ranking on those lists. Our kids play in the front yard. We know our neighbors by first names and we have at least one big neighborhood block party a year. Northeastern University researchers recently reported that there was an uptick in violent crimes in Boston neighborhoods populated by STRs and they attributed that increase to the loss of community standards. We worked hard to build our community standards in Fort Worth and I don't want to lose that to short-term rentals. Thank you. Number 13, Katrina Perez-Tiz. Good evening everybody. I wanted to share a different perspective as a resident. Thank you very much. I'm a Texan so I have to tell you that because if you're a Texan you let people know but more importantly, I'm also a mother. I'm a business owner. I went to university to study speech language pathology doing home health care and I also was a preschool teacher and I say that to also say that I can understand the desire for short-term rental because of the cash flow opportunities but on the other hand it really poses a true concern about who are we really valuing? Are we valuing the cash flow or do you value the culture? Do you value the cash flow or do you value the constituent? Because for every short-term rental that's in place it's one less place that me and my children have available to live. The cost of living and inflation is rampant and that's across the board. I do loan signing and I'm a mobile notary so that I can be with my son full time and also like I said, I'm a single parent and I see the rates going up dramatically and I really wonder if foreclosures are gonna be sweeping in within a year and what's gonna happen when investors swoop in on these properties? Are they gonna make them short-term rentals or are they gonna provide long-term rental opportunities for women like myself that have children? We start businesses, I'm an educator, I'm a mother, I'm a voter, I'm here and I feel that short-term rentals really miss that gap for people like myself that are a one-income household that are believers in capitalism but also more importantly believers in community and I hope that the rules that we implement create a balance for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Number 14, Thomas Torle-Cassey. Hello everyone, my name's Thomas. I live in the Fairmount District, it's District 9. It's probably one of the most unique neighborhoods in the United States. If you don't know it, it is the largest historic district in the US. So as you go down the blocks and streets you'll see that nearly every home although there's kind of an architectural pattern, there are a lot of quirky unique styles. But I wanna share with you my block and also make a point, we have four options that the staff wants us to discuss or consider tonight. All four of those options include STRs. Nobody has a choice to eliminate all the STRs. Our concerns in our neighborhood and I don't speak for every Fairmount resident is the function of density and affordable housing availability. And there is no other neighborhood that has 100 year old homes by the dozens and the hundreds. And so we have older neighbors who can't afford to repair their home because their taxes are so high. We have emerging young couples, first time home buyers who are blessed with medical district jobs and they can afford the ever increasing mortgage rates. The toughest thing for us is to consider is density. When you step outside my door to the left are two long-term rentals and to the right are a total of three STRs because one of the houses have been illegally converted to a duplex and both sides of the duplex are STRs. So that brings up my point which is I am for number one for now. I think for those of you that own STRs and places in the city that don't comply with the current ordinance that there should be a moratorium or forgiveness period to get those registered so that we can get a handle on how many there are in total. And I think that ultimately the proportion of STRs should be indexed to the growth and the density should be pretty consistent across the city. Number 15, Susan Urschel. I live in district seven. I've lived in my house for 39 years. I've lived in the neighborhood for 39 years. I'm against short-term rentals in single-family residents. We had two short-term rentals in our neighborhood. We were able to close down one and now it's a long-term rental. We have another one that's not been enforced because code enforcement's not enforcing them. And it's a bother every other weekend or every weekend. So I'm just, oh, and I've never stayed in one, by the way. So, yeah, just to say, so. That's all I know. Thank you. Number 16, Anita Jones-Smith. Hello, everyone. My name is Anita Jones-Smith. I am a proud Fort Worthian. I grew up on the south side of Fort Worth in the Rolling Hills community. I've attended inner-city schools public here right in Fort Worth, graduated from OD Wide High School that afforded me opportunities for a great college education. I'm also a proud daughter of Fort Worthian parents, a Texas Wesleyan graduate, a Fort Worth ISD educator retiree, and one of the founding actresses of Jubilee Theater. Short-term rentals in Fort Worth not only serve the purposes of vacationers, but a large percentage of traveling business professionals. In 2020, due to the pandemic, I was laid off from work. With one income and hiring freezes, we were forced to come up with the action plan. Well, that Fort Worth retiree educator came up with a small business idea that would host the increased traveling medical and corporate professionals here in Fort Worth. We partnered with private home owners through our agreement to transfer their properties into fully furnished, equipped dwellings perfect for professionals and their families. Since 2020, our small business has grown, and through our partnerships, it has provided us with resources to build generational wealth. So you will continue to hear that we are large investment corporations, that we host party houses, that we do not take care of our neighborhoods, that we do not invest in our communities. Well, I would like to tell you that I could do that anywhere else, but I decided to do that in my hometown. So for the STR regulations and zoning that you are opposing for residential homes, it does not speak to significantly impacted owner-occupied home owners or small owner business minorities as myself. I hope the city of Fort Worth votes for an STR zoning ordinance that is economically forward thinking and that we can be a model for other cities to follow. Cause being a host is not a quick get rich scheme. It takes hard work, dedication and hospitality at its finest. Number 17, Cindy Bowling. My name is Cindy Bowling. I live in Central Meadowbrook. I understand there's at least 1700 illegal STRs operating in Fort Worth right now. And I know that several of the owners have made public statements to city council and others that they're operating these illegal businesses and don't intend to stop, that baffles me. So I ask why should I believe that the people who are openly operating illegal businesses in Fort Worth will care about my neighborhood? And why should I believe that any tweaks to an ordinance will be abide by these people because they don't care they're operating illegal already. So why should they do any tweaks? And lastly, I say the city of Fort Worth needs to find a way to fix the 1700 illegal properties before they expand legal zoning for short-term rentals. They need to come up with a solution to the problem now before opening up the door to more problems. That's what I say. Number 18, Mary Collins. I'm Mary Collins. I'm from Fort Worth. I live in district seven down the street from the banker and I've never stayed in a short-term rental. I live next to a short-term rental. The property was advertised as accommodating up to 40 guests overnight. It was used as an event center. The owners were not from Texas. Each room could sleep eight people. Multiple cars were parked in the driveway and on the street. Cars would pull up at night, around midnight, unload boxes full of items. They would be gone by morning. The next day people would come in, show up and we weren't sure what they were doing inside, honestly. Churches use the home as an activity center and a meeting house for their congregation. They would set up tables in the back, multiple eyes, chest out front. Many cars were there day and night. They were parked in the driveway all over the street. They blocked my driveway. They would leave trash in the yard. When asked to pick up their trash, they called us names and they were right to us. I see people smiling at me and I don't know why that's funny because my daughter was scared to death of these people. College kids would use the house as a party house. At one point, we looked out to find kids dancing on the roof to loud music. One renter looked down from the second story window into my kitchen when my husband was gone. A constant flow of strangers from in and out of town moved through the neighborhood and my daughter was scared to come home at night and called us to meet her at the door. We had no idea who was sleeping in the house next door. The house was used for a large weddings, large reception. The music was loud, trash was everywhere. We repeatedly, we were nice. We said, could you please pick up your trash and nobody complied, not one person complied. Anyway, my point is we moved into a neighborhood with a single family housing. We didn't pay to live next door to homes or a motel. We live, and I know that all short-term rentals aren't like that, but mine was. So, number 19, Judy Taylor. And Judy Taylor, I live in District Five. On start, I am neighborhood president. I can lose two entire blocks to STR. It's very much in planes. When a person desires to hang out or to rent a structure for a few hours or days, it should be done where it is legal. Stay out of our single family neighborhoods and communities. Leave neighborhood houses to families desiring to make a home. Be part of a legal activity in Fort Worth, not a criminal blatantly flaunting your illegal activities. It is time Fort Worth steps up and enforces the STR roles they made several years ago. Please help us keep city of Fort Worth legal. Number 20, Daniela Judge. Hello, my name is Daniela Judge and I live in District Eight. I am speaking on behalf of myself and my mother, Katie Sherrod, who owns the property where she lives at 1870 Eaterville Road. This property and mine have adjacent backyards and a gate that join the two properties. I tell you this to explain the layout of the property where we operate our B&B. The freestanding guest house on my mother's property shares a circular drive with the primary living structures on the property and enjoys off street parking and even a small fully enclosed fence garden. My mother lives in this property no more than 60 feet from the guest house and I live immediately behind her. Needless to say, we are very engaged with our guests. We have operated this way for several years with absolutely zero complaints from our neighbors. And in fact, our occasional problem that we usually have that we have had recently is the result of resident neighbors illegally setting off fireworks, drag racing down our street, or shooting guns off nearby. We live there, we shop there, we go to church there and we engage with our neighbors in a healthy way. We feel strongly that we be allowed to continue to operate this Airbnb in the same quiet, respectful and hospitable way that we have for these past few years. We believe the solution to the concerns with short-term rentals is to simply require hosts live on site or begin by applying guidelines based on actual complaints to specific properties. To uniformly apply seemingly punitive measures seems inappropriate, unfair and extreme. Thank you. Number 21, Libby Willis. I'm Libby Willis, I'm the resident of Oakhurst and a former president of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association. Short-term rentals should not be allowed in any of the city's residential neighborhoods for three main reasons. Number one, short-term rentals are commercial enterprises that do not belong in residential districts. Number two, we need great places for people to live in this city and we currently face a shortage of affordable housing, converting dwelling units, especially affordable housing units for use as many hotels, defeats the city's need to maintain and increase the supply of affordable housing. Number three, neither city regulations nor self-regulation by the short-term rental industry can protect residential neighborhoods from the many harms associated with short-term rentals. These harms are best described by Airbnb itself. If you look at pages 45 through 48 of Airbnb's November 2020 IPO Investment Prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Airbnb describes in great detail the many harms to hosts, guests, and neighbors it cannot and will not prevent. Airbnb says we have no control over or ability to protect the actions of our users and other third parties. Airbnb says we cannot guarantee the safety of our hosts, guests, and third parties. Airbnb says we do not verify the identity of all of our hosts and guests, nor do we verify or screen third parties who may be present during a reservation made through our platform. I urge the staff to review the IPO disclosures which I'll provide a copy of and to acknowledge frankly to the city council that neither short-term rental platforms, hosts, nor the city can stop STR hosts, guests, or third parties from engaging in criminal activity, misconduct, fraudulent, negligent, or inappropriate conduct, or from using STRs as a conduit for criminal activity. Thank you. 22, Beverly Sims. My name is Beverly Sims. My husband and I have lived at 6935 Craig Street in Hanley for 50 years this last 4th of July. We have enjoyed the peace and quiet of an established older neighborhood. However, this all changed this last January. Because of the STR across the street and the two adjacent to our property, my stomach starts churning every Friday night. How many? Who are they? What are they doing in our neighborhood? We're not close to any stadium or any kind of activity for families and people to go out and ride rides and things like that. Here they are. We don't know what they're doing. There's trucks, cars, vans, strangers, noises. They come and go day and night. Recently, seven cars pulled in for the weekend. If you can't imagine, that stopped up our street. Earlier, a big stock tank, stock car, what do you call it, truck came in and we had to pass one car at a time. That's how it is. These people are not vetted and the owners tell them to say that they are relatives or friends if code happens to show up. What other business tells their customers to lie about the product? I believe everyone here understands that STRs put strain on the city's code and police departments due to the increased crime and code violations. A simple solution to the entire issue is to maintain option one. Do not let the neighborhood be wrecked by these STRs. And I haven't heard one STR person, this meeting others, talk about paying their hotel tax. I haven't heard any of them. And if you need extra income, Walmart's hiring. Thank you. 23, Barbara Meese. Yeah, my name is Barbara Meese and I've lived in Fort Worth for a long time. I've owned my property for 42 years and I'm 73 year old with O. And I wanna say I think the nine person, the owner on the premises or close to the premises, no events, no weddings, no parties, 10 o'clock curfew are all good rules for anybody that wants to operate Airbnb. I think that each property should be looked at on an individual basis. My property is, my house is in the middle of 3.258 acres. And there's plenty of parking. There's, well, the house is a money pit, but it's a historic home. People love to stay there. And it's got a big swimming pool and I've had ladies my age, they come there to drink wine or something, but it's always been, it's a lot of fun. And I have a little cottage too that people like to stay in. But it's on the lake and people can look at the lake or get the pool and there's a place for Airbnb's, but I agree with some of the people I've listened to that what horrible experience is to have the big parties and I don't allow parties at mine. So, and also the Paradox Church has come and had picture call at my house to show lifestyle living, but not really, they didn't have service and all that kind of stuff. And also a realtors had picture call at my house. So it's a fully furnished, beautiful house of, I don't know why I put mode, the lands, I don't know what that means. But then whatever Don Cosby, not whatever Don Cosby said, was it Cosby or Crosby? And I give my one second to you. Thank you. Number 24, Michelle Andrade. Thank you. Good evening. This is Michelle Andrade and I am four STRs. My wife and I own and operate an STR and we launched in October of 2021 and we have seen over 50 families and groups come and stay in our home. We're in district four. The main attraction really is the stockyards. We're seeing a lot of traffic, a lot of demand, people wanna see the city. They wanna see the stockyards. The Dickies Arena is also a big attraction, the convention center as well. And so we handle our STR with great care and great responsibility. It's our prized possession. It's what's providing for me and my family. And so we're four STRs, we're responsible and we care for our city. I was born here. I love the city of Fort Worth. My dad was a pastor in the north side of Fort Worth for 25 years. And so we love Fort Worth and we hope we can continue to operate STRs in this city. Thank you. 25, Marianne Armstrong. Good evening, I'm Marianne Armstrong. I'm in district seven. I have the privilege of living on Lake Worth on the south shore. It is in the city limits, but there's nothing that looks like city. There is the closest grocery store any commercial development is three miles away. We bought in a residential area, not in a commercial area, not close to a commercial area. We're surrounded by city parkland and open space. There are short term rentals in our neighborhood and they advertise as up to 16 spaces to rent, places. They block the street. If you're in a short term rental on Lake Worth, your intention is to have a lot of fun. But on the other hand, your intention is not to be a good neighbor. Your intention is to let someone else take care of the property after you leave. You know, I'm in favor of the city retaining the zoning, the option one, what they have now and not expanding it into residential, into single family, you know. Any restrictions are good restrictions to it. We want a neighborhood. We know our neighbors, we have brunch and lunch together in Christmas parties. We don't want our neighborhood filled with rentals. So thank you very much. 26, Pam Hudson. I'm Pam Hudson. I own my home. I live in District 4 with my husband and my children when they're home with us, they're very active. I do not currently own any rental property in Fort Worth. However, I've stayed in at least 30 STRs across the country. I support STRs in any zone with appropriate regulations and why is that? For one, the Texas Constitution protects my rights to use my primary residence as an STR. Article 16, Section 51, size of homestead and uses, quote, provided that the homestead in a city town or village shall be used for the purposes of a home or as both an urban home and a place to exercise a calling or business of the homestead claimant, provided also that any temporary renting of the homestead should not change the character of the same. This tells me that I have the right if I choose to rent my primary residence as an STR to groups of people who will use the home the same way I do. They would come there to gather, to sleep, to bathe, to prepare meals to eat and to socialize with the people that they're there with. Of course, I would not at all support the party houses you've described. That's terrible. What have other cities done? San Antonio spent a year with a 24 member task force to create their ordinance. They did not do it in a vacuum. I don't know how Fort Worth came up with their four options. What did San Antonio decide? Owner-occupied is allowed with no restriction to zone, no density cap. Investor is allowed any zone with a density cap. That seems reasonable. Austin, owner-occupied, no zone restriction, no density cap. The same for Denton and Frisco. Frisco even allows investors to have no density cap in any zone. Keller Plano Dallas Houston do not have a policy yet. Arlington did restrict it in the entertainment district and when it went to court, the claim was on the basis of violation of equal protection and freedom of movement and that's why it was not found to be a problem. I believe it violated the homestead right. We've heard many terrible cases. I believe regulation would solve these and I'm very sorry that Fort Worth did not step up and do regulations sooner to prevent these horrible problems from happening that did happen. 27, Amanda Pittman. Hi, everyone. My name is Amanda Pittman. I am president of Woodward East Neighborhood Association. I am a Fort Worth resident, obviously. I'm a district six constituent and a licensed realtor in the state of Texas. I had a bunch of stuff written and I'm actually gonna go a little off prompt after listening today. I will say as a realtor, I represent primarily homestead owner-occupent people. If you tried to buy a house last year, let me tell you something. Affordable housing is an illusion. Last year, if you tried to buy a house as a first-time home buyer, I would tell you you had to have minimum of probably $50,000 excess in your account to buy a house upwards of $100,000. So let me ask any of you, if you bought a house last year and you plan to live there and you're a first-time home buyer, how are you supposed to do that on a single income or marginalized? Let's say that right. How do you have an extra $550,000 to $100,000? You don't, okay? And just rates have gone up. There is no inventory. If you've looked at the inventory, it sucks. It's overpriced. Let's be real. I'm not trying to get rich on selling homes. I'm just trying to help my first-time home buyers get into homes and stay there. Property taxes have gone up, insurance has gone up. My electric bill is $500 this month. Don't know how much yours are. Can a first-time home buyer afford that? No. Especially after they just shelled out $50,000 to get into their home. That already has maintenance issues, needs a new AC, needs a new, what else, right? So I'm not saying STRs are a bad thing, but I'm saying affordable housing is a problem in Fort Worth and across the nation. I am for option one because in my opinion, affordable housing is a bigger issue. Period. I care about my single mom that could not buy a home last year because every and the property that she lost down on several of them ended up on Airbnb. Now that's just the reality. My military buyers who relocated, who were not able to buy a home, I have people trying to help. Buyers are not able to get into homes. That's what matters to me. I'm for option one. Thank you. Number 28, Louisa Masters. Louisa Masters, South Hill South, Fort Worth. I'm the appointed representative speaking on behalf of South Hill South Neighborhood Association. And our entire association do not wish to see STRs in residential neighborhoods, particularly ours. We are option one. The city constantly sends our association information about the desperate need for affordable housing and for housing, which is affordable. Our inventory in both these categories shrinks each day. It is ludicrous for the city to cry about this on one hand while the other hand is considering allowing our inventory to be sucked up by corporations such as STRs. Either we protect the usable inventory we have of housing which is affordable or you allow it to be sold down the river but you can't have it both ways. We are option one. Drugs, parties, rape, prostitution, human trafficking, murders, the mass shooting in Pittsburgh recently, artificially inflated property values, higher taxes, less school enrollment, all of these happen with STRs. We are option one. Communities are about residents, not vacationers. The inventory of housing which is affordable must be left available for young couples and families whose presence and involvement there create strong communities and not allow STRs to turn these properties into ATM machines. We're South Hills South Neighborhood Association and once again, we're option one. Thank you. Give her 29 James Sims. Good evening, my name's James Sims. As my wife mentioned when she was after a moment ago, we've lived in Fort Worth for 50 years at the same place in the old city of Hanley. Currently, there are three active STRs within 200 feet of our house and we are not pleased with the situation. I therefore come before you this evening to express my opposition to any change in the current STR ordinance. Commercial enterprises such as STRs have absolutely no place in any single family residential neighborhood. Please keep and enforce the current STR ordinance forbidding STRs in these locations. Thank you. 30 Philip Kummer. 30 Philip Kummer. 31 Rosemarie Galdiano. Hello, my name is Rosemarie Galdiano. I'm a lifelong Fort Worth resident. Went to high school here at Trimble Tech. I currently live in zip code 76110 in district nine and I have stayed in short-term rentals, Airbnb's locally and internationally. And I can tell you that I have had not very good experiences with them. I have felt like they have not maintained their properties. I also in some instances have felt like I have invaded a neighborhood and I felt guilty about it. I could tell that the people around me were suspicious of this visitor that came into their neighborhood. So I'm against STRs and I really implore the city, staff and our council to keep the integrity of our residents, of our community, of our neighborhoods. In my neighborhood, we share driveways between houses and so having an STR two or three on my block would be devastating to the density and the quality of my block and my neighborhood. It's a walkable neighborhood, but having STRs or whatever you're calling them, Airbnb's, it would really wreck the quality of life that I currently enjoy in my neighborhood. I know that in my mother's neighborhood where I grew up, same thing. We're getting, she's getting inundated with investors to come in and take over their small homes and purchase them. They couldn't, my mother couldn't afford to purchase another home after selling to an investor. She has a luxury of living, urban living close to the city. And sorry, is that my time? Oh, thank you. Thank you. Number 32, Christine Voight. My name's Christine Voight. I live in District 9 in Historic Crime Place. I moved there because it was a residential area and that's where I want to live. I didn't want to live in a hotel situation. I do respect y'all wanting to make money off of your properties. Maybe you should, I think from listening to everybody, I'm kind of convinced that we need long-term rentals more than short-term rentals. And y'all are certainly entitled to make money on your properties. So I'm for option one. Thank you all. Thank you. Number 33, Shane Guillory. Well, let's be kind of fast. I'm gonna try to go slow. Some smart Greek philosopher once said, change is the only constant in life. And one of our smarter presidents once said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. But today, I think those two things are what seem to surround this topic of STRs. Some want to change while others fear it. I myself once had some of the same fears that maybe the members that don't support STRs have. However, my fears changed to confidence when I finally bit the bullet and stayed at one in California. This allowed my entire family the ability to attend my daughter's college graduation. It was then I realized how maybe my family could have that same effect on others. So far, we have affected the lives of over 90 similar families that have used my property to either visit their child at one of our local colleges, come forward to see their relatives or just to get away from their own spaces for a while, which is so important these days to help maintain good and positive mental health. During the time we have offered our property to others, I haven't had any issues to speak of and my neighbors fully support my family and how we are choosing to use our property. And probably without even knowing it, they have helped save my family in more ways than I have the time to share. Fear can be used in a positive way when trying to navigate the changes that will be constant in our lives, such as how to govern STRs in the hopefully near future. Today, I just came to ask that you please look at all the facts, do what is possible for the city and protect the rights of the citizens by passing a code that will make sense for the future of our great city. Thank you for your time and God bless. Thank you. Number 34, Steven Chaco. Hi there, my name is Steven Chaco. I'm a Fort Worth son. My dad graduated from Bright Divinity. I'm a preacher's kid too, so don't hold that against me. I am wanting to make a very clear statement to city staff, any short-term rental that is outside of the ordinance is in direct violation of the Fair Housing Act. Direct violation of the Fair Housing Act. It is a desperate impact to the marginalized minority community existing today. We have many violations of the Fair Housing Act. And going into the future, I would hopefully give a couple lessons about that in the future, but today I want to make a very clear statement. The desperate impact is being affected by any violators outside of the short-term rental ordinance. You are directly affecting the marginalized minority communities. City staff needs to be aware of that. So you can clearly understand from our community of any marginalized minority community, and I'm part of that Fair Housing Act protected class. So you need to understand that that is directly a federal violation. And under that federal violation, if there's any advertisement that is existing, that is outside of the ordinance, there is your law enforcement can go out and do it. You say you can't do that without having an advertisement. You can't do the advertisement. Yes, you can because they're violating the Fair Housing Act. Thank you. Number 35, Tina Hampton. My name is Tina Hampton. I just want to ask, where is the trust that homeowners should have with the city of Fort Worth when the mayor and the city council don't honor and enforce the laws against STRs that are in place now? The answer to that is there isn't any trust. The mayor and the city council have failed. They remain isolated from citizens who follow the law and instead allow forums like this one to take place. Fort Worth has used every excuse not to enforce the STR laws. The ordinances, they say there's not enough money in the budget to enforce the law. The problem is too big, yet it would not be too big if the city had honored the law in the first place. The honest homeowners get disrespected and shortchanged yet are forced to live with hotels within our residential neighborhood. The honest homeowners trusted the city to include them as we pay extremely high property taxes so that the mayor and the city council can fail us but protect law breakers. I ask, why should we trust the mayor or the city council who says you will enforce anything to protect honest homeowners? Prove it. Prove that you respect the honest homeowner and shut down the STRs in residential neighborhoods. I also find it extremely ironic that the people who own and operate these STRs, they come up here and they describe their honest business, how hard working they are and yet they're breaking the law. Number 36, Chris Getz. Well, good evening. I think it's just pretty cool that we all get to come together and talk about each side. One thing I wanna talk about tonight is if I was God and in control of this deal, there wouldn't be STRs, period. And that's why we need to take one and go back to zero. And you need to impress that upon your city council people who really aren't listening but I think they'll listen if you tell them you're not gonna vote for them. But the bottom line of it is I'm an entrepreneur also. I employ the people that are entrepreneurs. But if entrepreneurship in this city brings down the property value, you'll have residents that can afford because the neighborhoods will go right to the bottom because I've seen some of these places, I've seen what y'all are talking about and it's not good. Some people in here are like the Sherrods. I think they've got probably a nice place. But I think it's probably in the minority. So I would just like to employ the people think about what they're doing, think about what it's gonna do in the city. This is one of the finest cities in the world. The finest city and it's been that way for a long time. Don't let it escape us because of greed. Don't let us escape us because of stupidity. Let us do what we need to do, okay? So I think you need to call your city council people. Call them air. Come see them air. I'm sure she'd love to see it. But, oh boy, but the bottom line of it is get involved, get your neighbors involved. If y'all don't want them, you can cure this. It's real easy to cure. I've seen it done. City footwork will respond. You gotta have the group to it. Thank you so much. 37 Michael Johnston. Hi there, I'm Michael Johnston and I've had the privilege of living in Fort Worth for 40 years and lived in the same house for over 35 years. And I have three generations of my family living on the same block of the same street. And I'm not the only family that has that. And I tell you what, I have offices in every major city in Texas except for El Paso. And I chose to come to Fort Worth. Got here the day after I graduated from law school. And the reason I came to Fort Worth is because Fort Worth has something unique that no other major Texas city has. And that's inner city, viable, active neighborhoods. That's what makes Fort Worth different. That's what makes Fort Worth unique. There's great things about all different types of cities. There are great things about Houston. I was in Houston this last week and went down to a neighborhood that I knew that my grandfather lived in. That neighborhood is about the same distance from downtown as my neighborhood is. But you know something? It's property values are zero. In fact, the house had been burned down by a virtue of an arsonist. Now, I wanna tell you something. When you come to Fort Worth and a real estate agent says, listen, Fort Worth is unique because it has viable inner city neighborhoods. But then they have to say, but there's a possibility that a party house can be put right next door to you. Are you gonna really wanna come to Fort Worth as opposed to Aledo or South? Some other place? I hope not, but that's the way it is. And some of our realtor friends have told us that. So again, I urge you, city council, if hopefully they'll view these tapes and that they will not change the SDR ordinance. Thank you so much. 38, Marsha Wright. Oh, my name is Marsha Wright. I've lived in Fort Worth all my life. I represent, I shouldn't say I represent. All these people that are sitting over here are all people who are part of an organization called United Neighborhoods of Fort Worth. We have, we are from the east side, we are from the west side, we are from the north side, we are from the south side. All of that you have heard today, I was going to talk and give a speech, but I'm not because these people have told you exactly what they think better than I can. And that is that we are for option number one. We are not for option number two, which allows bed and breakfast in B and C zoning, which would be opening the doors for more SDRs in B and C in the residential area. So we are for option one. And I want to thank everybody who's come tonight. We appreciate it. Thank you for your time. 39, Paul Carpo. Good evening. I'm Paul Carpo of Hanley, owner of a dozen long-term rentals in Fort Worth, which aren't just fine for me for making income. I'm strongly opposed to any change of the current ordinance. And I believe most people who buy or rent a home in a community expect to live with neighbors, not tourists. That being said, I believe council is going to change the ordinance. And if they do so, I hope at least they address the zoning so that these commercial properties in residential neighborhoods are taxed as commercial properties. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Lauren Brady and I'm the president of the Fort Worth short-term rental alliance, which is represented over here. Tonight I'm speaking specifically to city staff and hopefully to city council. You're hearing many opinions tonight from people who are both foreign against SDRs, but what you're not hearing are the hundreds of thousands of residents in Fort Worth who just don't care. And speaking with my neighbors, friends, families, coworkers, and even strangers, they're stunned that this is even an issue the city is spending its time on. It's difficult to get those folks to email and speak at these meetings because they're just apathetic. Please take the number of us here tonight and the number of people who have emailed you and subtract it from the number of residents in the city of Fort Worth. What you'll be left with are the people who don't care if they exist. By not speaking, they're actually saying a lot. Please listen. A couple of other important points, the opposition and even city staff tonight continue to refer to SDRs as commercial lodging use. The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that SDR use is residential in nature. The length of time someone sleeps in a home does not change the nature of said property. Ms. Bergdorf has already mentioned that other cities have paused their ordinance decisions based on Supreme Court cases in those states. Texas has already defined SDR use as residential. Please keep this in mind as you move forward, creating an ordinance that will impact thousands of Fort Worth homeowners and hundreds of thousands of visitors who bring economic development to the city. And I'll quickly, somebody said that no one with SDRs has mentioned taxes. I've been trying to pay my hot tax since February and the city won't let me. Thank you. 41, Noble B. Noble B. Good afternoon. I'm here because I'm not for the short-term rule at all. And I hope that if we have to have it, they stick with the number one, because it's a problem and I live in a neighborhood. In fact, the house I live in, I grew up in it actually. And I could probably sell it to someone to rent it out and I'm clear not to do this. The problem we have one in neighborhood that's operated and I'm sure it's illegal, but it's owned by someone from out of state. And I think that if anyway, and going forward, if they do anything with these, it should be required that the individual lives here in Fort Worth, Texas. And ideally it would be like the lady while ago that has the property adjacent to her mother's and so forth, because those people are gonna guarantee that that property and the people there are gonna behave and act in a manner which is acceptable to that neighborhood. Now, in fact, the one I knocked on the door or the one today that they have in there, but like I said, the problem is they don't care about that property. People that only lives in Washington state and it is strictly a cash cow to them. They have no concern about my neighborhood. They could care less. People come and go, I don't know who they are. I don't know what they, what's going on. Like I said a while ago, what they're doing in there. I don't know, if you see a kid or something, you don't know, does that kid belong with them? You don't know any of this. Therefore, I think that we need to restrict it to the best of our ability and that require the individuals that have them be residents of Fort Worth, Texas, because they have skin in the game. They care, thank you. 42, Austin Minor. Thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight. So there have been a lot of stories on both sides, a lot of anecdotes and I think ultimately that's what we're gonna get from either side with your pro or against this issue. And I've heard a lot of stories from people who are against STRs and they sound terrible, very frustrating, I don't blame you. And one of the consistent themes I keep hearing though is that those STRs were shut down, which I think is completely appropriate and that definitely should have happened. I am for STRs in the city and for regulating them, but I think that they should be allowed. I think the times change, things grow, they evolve. And as a city in Fort Worth, we're diverse, we allow people in, we've got a booming cultural district, we've got tons going on and people wanna come here, whether it's for medical care, which we've got a great medical district, they come here for concerts and things at Dickies Arena and other opportunities for funerals, for relatives and visiting family and whatnot. My wife and I and our five kids, we've lived in four different homes in Fort Worth, we've been here for 14 years. We've actually lived next to an STR as well as two different long-term renters. One of the long-term renters was phenomenal, one was hellish, very similar to some of the STR stories I've heard before, they're here tonight. And then the STR, we actually never even really saw people or heard from them, totally quiet. So I just think a lot of it depends on your lived experience and I think that ultimately, if we have good regulations in place and hopefully City Council can come up with some of those that we could come to a solution that really works well for everyone. But one thing I guess I would urge the City Council to do is to take note of the cities like San Antonio, like Frisco and others who have put in place more open regulations over the last year or so, see what happens with that because I think what you'll find is that that works out very well and it's a good win for both sides and I think we could then follow that playbook going forward. Thank you. 43, David St. Germain, 43, David St. Germain, 44, Clifford Profitt. Good evening, everyone. My name's Clifford Profitt, past president of the Carter Riverside Neighborhood Association, three terms in two different times. They liked me so much they brought me back. The situation is over the past few years, I've had the pleasure of actually operating three different STRs in different locations including in Ohio, Tennessee and in here in Texas. The first time I did that was looking at my competitors in the area. Found a property nearby, went and checked out, found out the information that the young couple who had purchased the property was financially strapped because it was their first time home purchase. They were looking at ways to be able to afford the home that they wanted to bring their family up, but they were using the STR for the vacant bedrooms that they weren't using. They were leveraging their purchasing power. Now, they were good, wonderful competitors of mine for about 10 months, then they stopped. Stopped in and talked with them, guess what? Their family's starting. So they've removed their property because they then hadn't acquired enough assets to be able to manage their debt and to move forward. As far as affordable housing aspect, this is a way to leverage people in on STRs. And I've also traveled and stayed in STRs, not only nationally but internationally. And I can tell you the situation is, I've had some wonderful host experience where I had an experience that you couldn't get at a tourism office. But actually being with the people who lived there, it was a good experience. I've also had some bad experiences which were investor owned absentee. It's not the situation of STRs, it's how it's applied. Now, I know a lot of people have talked about the fact that we need to shut these criminal operators down that are not registered. The problem is, we have a lot of, I apologize, my time is up. If you want more information, I'll be able to have work with you. Okay, thank you very much everyone for participating today. That's all the speakers that we have signed up. Again, we really appreciate your attendance at this meeting, giving you an opportunity to provide your comments and feedback to staff. I encourage you to tune in this Thursday at 6 p.m. on Fort Worth TV and live on YouTube to a live panel where you can submit questions by phone, text, Twitter, and email. Let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your attending.