I’m shocked! And, I must admit, I was terribly wrong. When the Planning & Zoning Commission proposed conducting a survey on short-term rentals I figured, at a minimum, 80 percent of those who responded would be against having them anywhere near the city limits. I misjudged this one by a wide margin. According to the survey results, which can be found here, nearly two-thirds of those who responded said Kyle should allow short-term rentals.
The survey attracted more than 500 responses, which is remarkable in itself. To put that number in perspective, according to a story in today’s Austin American-Statesman, in which Elon University conducted a poll of Austin residents which revealed low support for locating the Amazon HQ2 project in this area, Elon said it "typically interviews about 500 to 600 people 18 years or older when conducting polls." That’s 600 people asked to represent the opinions of the entire "Austin area." P&Z’s survey got that many responses to sample a much smaller population base.
According to the survey, of the 502 respondents who answered the question "How should Kyle approach short-term rentals," 328 — 65.34 percent — said they should be allowed in one form or another, with 48 percent of them saying they should be allowed as long as some kind of regulations were in place.
Only a little less than 31 percent (155 of the respondents) said short-term rentals have no place in Kyle.
The results of the survey are expected to be discussed during the Planning & Zoning’s workshop which begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. If you can’t attend, the hearing should be available to view on the city’s web site or, if you are a Spectrum Cable customer, on Channel 10.
I have reached out to Mayor Travis Mitchell, the other members of the City Council, as well as Planning & Zoning Chair Rick Koch, for their comments on the survey’s results and should I receive any responses, I will let you know.
(Updated 12:49 p.m. Monday) Council member Damon Fogley, who supports short-term rentals in Kyle, told me Sunday evening he was not as surprised by the results of the survey as I was.
"I found that just from reading some of the Facebook posts, it looked to me that most people wanted to have them, but they wanted some control," Fogley said.
He added he would want any "control" mechanisms that are put in place to include one that would guarantee Hotel Occupancy Taxes are collected from short-term rental owner-operators just as they are from hotels, motels and inns. He said he realized state law required these owner-operators to pay the taxes, but the question remains "Are they?"
"I think they (short-term rentals) should be permitted," Fogley said. "I’m a big property-rights person. You can see that by my voting record the last few years. I’ve been in favor of the majority of the development throughout the city. I see short-term rentals as a way for some people to supplement their income. Most people in Kyle are middle-class families and why not let them rent out their house for someone in town for the Formula One or to see something at Texas State. These people are prepared to spend a decent amount of money during their stay in Kyle. So I’m in favor of it, but at the same time I don’t think it can be completely unrestricted."
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