A Letter To The  City Planning Commission

Dear Commissioners,

We’re writing to urge stronger action to protect New Orleans neighborhoods, residents, and responsible hospitality businesses from the growing impacts of commercial short-term rentals. This is not a new request, as we’ve been advocating for our neighborhood, and the rest of the Historic Core since our founding in 1973 as New Orleans’ first Historic District. Unlike some neighborhoods, the Marigny, Treme and Bywater saw no special limitations on the proliferation of Transient Lodging, resulting in an over-proliferation of STRs, hotels, and BandBs. 

This is not just our belief, but was reaffirmed in the most recent Transient Lodging Study. This study was a long time coming. It was directed by the City Council over three years ago, and was contracted out to Desire Line. This gave the issue  a “fresh set of eyes” to examine the effects of lodging on our neighborhoods. Not only was Desire Line paid $175,935, but they had an infinite number of meetings with various City departments, and the City Planning Commission Staff. In short, this was the most exhaustive (and expensive) study that has been done on the impact of STR’s on our neighborhoods to-date.

What Did The Study Find?

The Study determined that our neighborhoods had been overwhelmed by Transient Lodging. The reason for this conclusion is evident in the heat map below which shows the density of STR’s in the city : 

While the heat map shows the overabundance of Transient Lodging in our neighborhoods, other data pinpoints the impact on the number of residents in our neighborhood. This 19.1% difference (22.9% decrease) translates to roughly 1375 residents*.

* Based on 3000 properties with 2 people per property. 

So How Does This Affect Our Neighborhood?

1. Diminishes the density of year round, tax paying neighbors that support both local business in and outside the neighborhood and the city’s tax revenue.

2. Removes the needed density of residents who are vested in the neighborhood to maintain a clean, kept and safe neighborhood 

3. Creates an unequal and unreasonable balance between residential quality of life and people who are here just to party. 

4. Others?

What Do We Need?

• BAN ALL FUTURE COMMERCIAL TRANSIENT LODGING IN THE HISTORIC CORE

Commercial STR’s and Hotels have been hollowing out our residential neighborhoods by converting neighborhood-serving businesses into tourist lodging. This drains housing at every income level, reduces the neighborhood serving businesses that our resident  population needs as well as creates unfettered friction in the form of noise, litter and other nuisances to maintain their quality of life. This makes daily life harder for the people who keep this city functioning. 

Thankfully, you, the City Planning Commission, agreed with the report and voted to ban all future Commercial Transient Lodging in our neighborhood. Put quite simply, nothing has changed since that vote in February, and no new evidence exists, to allow for a different opinion. 

The new Motion in front of you asks for you to reconsider BandB’s and Hotels in HM-MU and HMC-2. The stated reasoning behind this request is that these properties are on “major traffic arteries that provide access for more intense commercial uses”.  That is inarguable, and is the reason for why that zoning category exists. However, it is unmistakable that HMC-2 properties abut residential properties, and the type of business located there will impact our residents.

Supporting residential-serving businesses and being allowed to prosper is the best way to reverse the effects of the heat map shown above. Therefore, we ask that you come to the same conclusion you did previously and vote to support the proposed ban on future Commercial Transient Lodging.

• ELIMINATE ALL CURRENT COMMERCIAL STR’s

Furthermore, we ask that you eliminate the current Commercial STR’s in the Historic Core. Simply stated, the Desire Line study identified a serious problem caused by the unlimited amount of Commercial STR’s that were allowed to proliferate. A Commercial STR is simply an unstaffed hotel, and provides no benefits to the residents of the Historic Core.

The proverbial kicking the can down the road and turning a blind eye to the problem is of no benefit to the residents of our neighborhoods, the small businesses that make up the fabric of our city and the City’s revenue and it will undoubtedly create other issues down the road. It is up to you to fix the problem.

We ask that Commercial STRs be eliminated as a category and let those properties return back to being businesses that serve the residents, and mitigate the effects that  over abundance of Transient Lodging is having on our neighborhood. 

• ENFORCEMENT

The City of New Orleans should restore confidence in its ability to enforce the rules on the books. How?

1. Faster shutdowns of illegal listings, preventing obstruction of inspectors, transparent tracking of fines, and escalating penalties for repeat violators would make a meaningful difference. 

2. Dedicated enforcement staff, better data-sharing with booking platforms, and regular public reporting would help ensure the rules work for residents and responsible businesses. 

However, the surest path to ensure success would be to have rules and regulations that are actually enforceable. In previous sets of regulations, limitations were put in place that limited the amount of units in a building that could be used as STRs. Or how many bedrooms or guests were allowed in an STR. It was simply impossible for inspectors to gain access to these properties and accurately count the number of STRs, guests or beds. Any rules that are drawn up should be simple, and manageable, such as complete bans and density caps. Any other mitigation efforts have been proven to be too difficult to enforce.

Right now, corporate operators exploit delays and loopholes while neighborhoods wait. Every hour spent chasing illegal STRs is an hour not spent addressing blight, safety hazards, and other quality-of-life issues residents face daily.

We respectfully ask the City to affirm the conclusions you reached previously regarding the Historic Core. We ask that you place a ban on new and existing STR’s and remove them as a category in our zoning. We also ask that you strengthen enforcement, require platform accountability, and protect the neighborhoods that make New Orleans the vibrant, livable city we all value.

Thank you for your attention and leadership.

Sincerely, 

Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association, Short Term Rental Committee