The Peoria Heights Village Board got a different take on short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO last month, getting an earful from several rental property owners opposed to significantly more restrictive regulations before deliberating on the matter themselves, ultimately without resolution. The issue could be picked back up at a future date, l
The Peoria Heights Village Board got a different take on short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO last month, getting an earful from several rental property owners opposed to significantly more restrictive regulations before deliberating on the matter themselves, ultimately without resolution.
The issue could be picked back up at a future date, likely with some changes to the initial ordinance proposal, though it would resume before the Peoria Heights Zoning Board, which then would make recommendations for consideration by the Village Board.
Short-term rentals have been a hot topic in the Village since a party at a local Airbnb got severely out of hand last spring, requiring a large police response. The Village drafted an ordinance for discussion at its Aug. 4 meeting, which met with a fair amount of blowback from local landlords, who objected to the annual, “over the top” license and fee structure relative to other nearby communities, to capping the length of stays, to what they perceived as onerous parking requirements and to sharing the identities of their guests with the Village, among other proposed conditions.
Branden Martin, the owner of six short-term rental properties in the region who also serves as Peoria County treasurer and chairman of the City of Peoria’s Planning and Zoning Commission, was the first of a series of objectors who made their way to the podium. He called the proposed ordinance “an overreach by government into property owners’ rights,” the antithesis of the community’s “business-friendly” reputation.
Another short-term rental owner, Kim Bryan-Russell, said she already does many of the things the new ordinance would require – vetting guests, barring parties, enforcing quiet hours, communicating with neighbors, etc. – and suggested the Village is trying to solve problems that are “not there.
“I think a lot of this is fear-based,” she said. “If you have good hosts, you don’t have these problems.”
“I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” said another owner who invoked a common theme: that the Heights has a lot of entertainment amenities but no hotel or motel to accommodate visitors flocking to its shops and restaurants and festivals, with short-term rentals filling that void and providing significant tax revenue to the Village.
Some trustees seemed sympathetic to the accusation that it is wrong to punish everyone for the sins of a few.
Trustee Nate Steinwedel was the most vocal, saying the ordinance was the equivalent of “smashing a fly with a sledgehammer.”
“We’ve had two incidents that have driven 16 pages of fees, fines, regulations and everything else,” he said while emphasizing that out-of-control parties already are illegal on a variety of fronts.
Steinwedel argued for a more minimalist, more easily enforced approach. “An occupancy limit should solve all of these problems,” he concluded.
Some trustees questioned the wisdom of moving too quickly and harshly on Airbnbs, while acknowledging that they had been inundated with constituent input.
“This is an entertainment community,” said Trustee Elizabeth Khazzam. As such, having an entertainment infrastructure, which includes places to stay overnight, is an important component, one from which the Village derives significant income, she emphasized.
“I don’t think anybody up here is anti-short-term rental,” said Trustee Sarah DeVore.
But the community also has a shortage of housing inventory that is attractive to young families, and that has an impact not only on community health but also on the school district’s, which has suffered declining enrollment. The proliferation of short-term rentals, specifically those with multiple bedrooms, arguably reduces the family-ready supply even further, some trustees have indicated.
“There aren’t enough people moving into the community,” said Trustee Jennifer Reichert, who also expressed concerns about owners who take little pride in their properties. The goal of any ordinance, she said, is “not to punish people that value” their properties but “to warn people that don’t.”
Steinwedel countered that, saying the free market already has put a ceiling on short-term rentals. “If our community could handle 200 Airbnbs, there would be 200 Airbnbs,” he said.
Village Administrator Dustin Sutton also weighed in, suggesting that “at a bare minimum, what we need to see is giving the police a little bit more teeth in what can and can’t be done. … When the police department does come, they have the tools to get ‘em out and move on.” He pointed to the success of the Village’s landlord registration ordinance and said perhaps that could be a model for short-term rentals.
The purpose of the ordinance proposal, said Village Attorney Mark Walton, was to give the Village Board the fullest array of options before them, based largely on what other communities are doing. “The intent was to put it all out there and then peel it back,” he said.
And that’s where the Village is now.
“This is just the first round,” said Sutton.
“Reaching a compromise is in everybody’s best interest,” said David Russell, another short-term rental owner.
In other recent action or discussion:
The Village announced its intention to apply for an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) state grant of $500,000, which if successful would go toward sprucing up Poplar Lane Park with expanded natural prairie plantings, a nature walk and a kayak launch.
The Village would be obligated to complement the grant with $250,000 in local funds.
About five years ago, the Village did a Phase 1 study of potential uses for the park with Farnsworth Group, and “this takes that to the next level,” said Mayor Matt Wigginton. “This is consistent with what we’re doing on Route 29,” with the state expected to break ground on an $80 million plus, wholesale reconstruction of the corridor yet this decade.
Trustee Sarah DeVore echoed some of those comments, saying the plans would “connect all of those dots” in a previously neglected part of the village that is ripe for ecotourism and begging for investment dollars.
The Village controls very few green spaces, noted Trustee Brandon Wisenburg, who grew up in the neighborhood next door to Poplar Lane Park. But it has “been able to maintain those parks with pennies,” for which local government deserves credit, though sometimes it takes more than that.
This investment could “bring back pollinators, bring back wildlife,” while also lowering mowing and other maintenance costs, said Wisenburg. “I’d love to see a kayak launch down there.”
The Village Boad approved a redevelopment agreement with Flores Music, 4111 N. Prospect Road, that will reimburse the business owner up to $25,000 of the $41,200 he intends to invest in renovation of the property.
While the money comes from a tax increment financing (TIF) fund, this is not a TIF agreement, per se, structured instead as a five-year, forgivable loan.
The Village Board okayed the purchase of body cameras from Arizona-based Axon Enterprise at a price of $50,000. This is the first installment of a five-year purchase agreement that ultimately will cost the Village more than $319,000. The body cameras are required by law and work in conjunction with officer-carried Tasers.
The Village Board approved the expenditure of $28,866 for Aupperle Construction of Morton to build new sidewalks in front of the police station. The work is expected to be done yet this September, before it gets cold.
The Village Board approved the purchase of a 2023 Chevy Trailblazer from Peoria Ford for just under $16,500, which will be used by the Village’s code enforcement officer, Shane Murphy. A trade-in brought down the cost from nearly $34,000.
With a full 25 percent of all fire service calls in the Village coming from just two long-term care facilities, the Village is considering a new policy capping the number of visits before fees are imposed.
Some 200 calls so far this year have come from just those two facilities, often for services they should be providing themselves, such as lift assistance, said Interim Fire Chief Austin Szentes. That a for-profit business is using taxpayers to subsidize services it should be doing itself, “that’s a problem,” said Mayor Matt Wigginton.
This has been a longtime issue, said Sutton, who indicated it may be time to get legal counsel involved. “We’ve given them every chance internally to correct that, and they just have not done it,” he said.
Police Chief Chris Ahart updated the Board on code enforcement efforts, suggesting that the Village is making a dent in problem properties. “Overall, the Village looks amazing,” he said. Shane (Murphy, code enforcement officer) does a great job.”
The Village is making about the same number of contacts and writing up of problems as in previous years – just short of 200 – with abatement tickets, where property owners don’t comply, running about 10 percent of that. The number of yards being mowed by the Village is down to about six, said Ahart. The Village has hired an outside company to clean up alleys, of which three have been done so far this year, he said.
Alleys are a “trickier situation,” as getting all the homeowners in sync “never happens,” said Sutton. While every property owner is responsible for his or her own section of alley, many ignore that responsibility, he said. Meanwhile, the people living next door “don’t care about the fines … They care about compliance.” That’s why the Village takes the initiative to do the clean up and then tries to recoup the costs later, he said.
“I think the residents have really appreciated that,” said Sutton, adding that it’s not about “a money grab” for the Village. “We’re actually out there making a change. … I think we’re on the right track.”
The Village Board approved the temporary closure of certain local streets from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, to accommodate the high school’s Homecoming parade. The streets affected are Marietta, where the parade starts, Prospect and Glen. Also blocked for a short term will be the intersections along the parade route of North Park Place, North Clarendon Place, North Bellevue Place and East Glen Avenue.