Following shooting, Columbia defers vote on new short-term rental restrictions

Columbia City Council decided to delay a vote on further regulations for short-term rentals in the city, weeks after a June 6 shooting at an Elmwood Park Airbnb left one teenager dead and three others hospitalized.

Both the amendments as well as a repeal of the current pause on new short-term rental permits were on the council’s agenda Tuesday, but the items were deferred. The topics will now come up at a work session on Aug. 5.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said the measures tightening restrictions on short-term rentals need to be in place by Labor Day.

“My fear was this is the only meeting in July, and if we didn’t try and get the conversation moving, we would be too late to address some of the issues that are very important to all of us,” Rickenmann said after the item was deferred.

According to Rickenmann, there are 139 unregistered short-term rentals in the city. He said during the meeting that Columbia’s city manager has been asked to work with the city’s code enforcement director to hire employees that can help enforce regulations on the properties.

“We want to keep rewarding those who follow the rules, who run a good business,” Rickenmann said. “But those people who’ve been skirting, hiding and cheating, I hate to tell you your days are numbered.”

What could be next for short-term rentals?

According to the meeting’s agenda packet, the updated regulations would increase the minimum age to book a short-term rental from 18 to 25, and the minimum length of a stay would increase to two nights instead of just one.

The current regulations say that the maximum overnight occupancy for a short-term rental is two per dwelling unit, with an additional two per bedroom. This does not include minor children. The proposed changes would make this rule apply to the entire day and clarify “occupancy” to mean the amount of people in the building at a given time, not the amount staying the night.

The changes would introduce a requirement for hosts to screen the bookings of guests who live within 30 miles of the building. The hosts would then need to either cancel the booking or require additional proof that the guests are using the property for a “legitimate overnight stay” and not for hosting a party, the proposal reads.

Repeated parties or other “neighborhood disturbances” would now be specifically mentioned in the list of violations that short-term

The amendments would also make it so the police chief or a designee could immediately revoke a permit for “extreme infractions or major events” such as violence or illegal activity occurring at a short-term rental property.

Other changes would make it so the “responsible local representative” Columbia short-term rentals are required to have operating the property would be required to obtain a property manager license through the South Carolina Real Estate Commission, even if the rental is owner-occupied. This representative or someone else would need to be reachable by neighbors to address issues that arise overnight.

It would also stipulate that the minimum two parking spaces required for each rental be off-street or on-site.

This isn’t the first time that short-term rentals have come under scrutiny in Columbia. After nearly banning them completely, the city passed an ordinance in 2023 that required owners to register the rental properties and obtain a permit for them.