Metro Council member Tara Wicker will unveil at a meeting next week what is expected to be a controversial ordinance governing short-term rentals throughout the parish.
Wicker says she and Planning Director Frank Duke have been working on the measure since mid-summer after some Spanish Town civic leaders and residents rejected her first attempt to regulate short-term rentals in their historic neighborhood.
That ordinance called for limiting short-term rentals but did not ban whole-house rentals, which critics in Baton Rouge and a growing number of cities around the country say damages the local character of neighborhoods and causes real estate speculation that drives up housing prices.
Wicker declines to say what the newest version of her ordinance will look like, which she says was drafted with Duke’s help and based on feedback from stakeholders at various community meetings earlier in the year. But she says the regulations will apply to the entire city-parish with specific provisions for Spanish Town only. She also says it will include provisions for both whole-house and partial-house rentals, the latter of which, technically, would be covered by existing bed-and-breakfast regulations.
Spanish Town residents are concerned Wicker’s revised ordinance will continue to allow whole-house rentals in their neighborhood, which, they say, have caused a litany of problems of late.
They’re also disturbed by what they claim is her back-room approach to drafting legislation that should be done much more collaboratively.
“The fact that everything has been so secretive suggests she is not looking out for the majority of the people she represents,” says Mary Jane Marcantel, a board member with the Historic Spanish Town Neighborhood Civic Association.
Wicker has declined to share a draft of her ordinance with neighborhood activists or the media. She says she doesn’t want to release it until it’s ready. But Marcantel and others, who have been brought into the discussion, say the process needs to be more open and transparent.
“Ordinances governing short-term rentals, should be a discussion open to the public,” says Center for Planning Excellence Executive Director Camille Manning Broome. “In planning, we support transparent processes so that the community’s best interest is represented. If everyone can not agree right away, it can be an iterative process until the community reaches a consensus.”
The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 26., at City Hall.
