Under the new regulations, homeowners must register for a license and collect city hotel taxes for short-term rental properties.
Atlanta's city council has passed new regulations governing short-term rentals like Airbnb, voting "13-1 to allow homeowners to rent rooms or entire houses to guests for up to 30 days, as long as the owners apply for an annual license, pay a $150 license fee, and collect city hotel-motel taxes from guests." Wilborn P. Nobles III, writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, notes that the measure comes as a compromise after "Councilman Howard Shook initially proposed a ban on short-term rentals."
Short-term rental giant Airbnb called the new rules "clear and equitable," telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the new regulatory environment will allow "responsible hosts to continue earning crucial income." To address community concerns about noise, vandalism, and safety, the law "subjects owners to a $500 fine for violations such as noise nuisances" and "allows the city to revoke an owner’s rental license for a year if the owner’s property commits three violations within a year."
Recently, San Diego also passed new regulations limiting the number of short-term rental units in the city amid concerns about housing affordability.
FULL STORY: Airbnb praises Atlanta’s passage of short-term rental laws
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association