Is Littleton legalizing Airbnb investment properties??

[James Carlson]

The city of Littleton is considering an ordinance to legalize short-term rental investments. Unlike Airbnb laws in other Denver metro cities, the draft ordinance would allow you to do an Airbnb in a non-owner-occupied home. More to the point: You would be able to buy investment properties and run them as Airbnbs. 

If this passes, Littleton would join the rare ranks of Front Range cities that allow STR investment properties -- the other being Colorado Springs and Arvada, which just passed its new law in August. (And I should say that Colorado Springs' law, while technically allowing investment Airbnbs, has in practice essentially made it impossible to do now.) 

Before diving into some details, two caveats. A) I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. And B) This is not final. (There are still votes to count!) The council will have a public hearing on Nov. 17, and amendments could be offered. That said, here are more details about the proposed ordinance:

• No primary residence rule
• Only 2 guests per bedroom (So, for instance, a 3br house can have 6 guests)
  
• No more than 8 guests at any house (So your 5br home can't use all its bedrooms)
  
• No limit on the number of STR investments you can run
• No particular zoning designation you need (though if anything gets changed at the meeting, this could be one thing.)
• If you live in the property, you can NOT rent out an ADU. You can only get a license for the main house. (This one's odd to me, and flies against what other cities have done. So if you're house hacking ... you have to live in the ADU and rent the main house on Airbnb? I need clarification.)
• It does not specifically address whether you can rent out both sides of a legal duplex as STRs. (You can do this in Colorado Springs. Can't do it in Arvada.)
  
• Appears to prohibit renting out multiple rooms in the same house to separate parties.
  
• There is a primary residence license and a non-primary residence license. I don't know why they split it like that.
• For a primary residence license, you have to live there nine months of the year.
• Tenants may run a short-term rental in their "primary residence" if they have written permission from the landlord.
  
• Must provide off-street parking. If you don't have off-street parking, on-street parking for guests is limited to 2.
• Must notify neighbors to each side and directly across the street of your STR license
• Must pay lodger's tax
  
• No renting an RV or tent
• Must provide emergency contact to guests of a designated person available within 2 hours of contact
• There may be -- may be -- a safety and compliance check prior to getting a license. I can't tell from the ordinance whether this is self-administered or if someone from the city comes out. 

I'm talking soon with one of the planners who helped with his ordinance and will update as I learn more. For those nerds who like reading this stuff like me, here's the draft.

[Steve K.]

@James Carlson Thanks for your continued reporting on policy issues on here! I appreciate your posts. Boulder County is another Greater Denver Metro/ Front Range location that still allows non-owner occupied STR's (not City of Boulder, just the County). There are hoops to jump through with licensing of course, for example they limit the number of nights the property can be rented as an STR in a calendar year, but the rates people are willing to pay are so high that it can be very profitable even with the reduced number of allowable nights. I have a few friends and clients doing very well with STR's in the county, as there is a ton of demand and not much supply. We're setting up an STR just over the county line now that is only 5min. drive/10min. bike/20min. walk to downtown/West Pearl St. that I expect will do very well. We'll be doing a hybrid model with some short and some medium term throughout the year to comply with the limited number of nights we can STR. There are some rumblings about the county changing the rules on number of allowable nights and they're sending surveys around about it right now to gauge public sentiment, so we have a back up plan of sticking entirely with medium term/ corporate rentals if they end up further reducing the number of nights. But as of right now, non-owner occupied STR's are still allowed in Boulder County, with some restrictions.