Lewisville seeks public input on short-term rentals

It’s the noise and the crows, at all hours of the day, that has residents and a neighborhood coalition demanding short-term rentals be reined in.

The city of Lewisville will hold the first public input meeting on the issue at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Currently, there are no regulations preventing short-term rentals in the city, according to the neighborhood services department.

There are 93 short-term rentals in Lewisville, 56% of owners live in the city.

The city reports 15 of the 93 short-term rentals had at least one code violation and there have been 16 calls for police service in the past year.

74% of the city’s short-term rentals had no code violations or calls for police service.

Still, residents who live next to short-term rentals say, “At one house, it’s a house that says it holds 16 to 18 people,” said David Margulies of the Texas Neighborhood Coalition of Lewisville. “They have loud parties and in one case, an entire bus pulled up there with people getting out at that house.”

The coalition banded together in an effort to keep short-term rentals out of neighborhoods zoned as ‘residential.’

Margulies says it’s not about residents simply being inconvenienced.

“If this was just some minor inconvenience, you wouldn’t have countries like Portugal and cities like Dallas and Arlington, from all over the world trying to deal with these,” he said.

Residents worry property values would be impacted if action isn’t taken.

“There’s nothing wrong with motels but you don’t want a motel in a residential neighborhood,” said Margulies. “If a person owns a property and they need to rent it out, they can rent it out for 30 days, they can rent it out for a year. Short-term rentals are the problem.”

He would like Lewisville to draw up an ordinance similar to Arlington’s.

“Which is strict regulations on short-term rentals, keeping them out of residential neighborhoods,” he said. “If they’re going to have 10 people, they have to provide parking spaces for the people who are coming. They have to register and that is legislation that has withstood court tests."

Monday afternoon’s meeting is the first of more to come, though specific dates have not been announced.