St. Charles considers regulations for short-term rentals, community members voice concerns

The city of St. Charles could impose new regulations and fees for AirBnbs, Vrbos and other short-term rentals currently unregulated within city limits.

Short-term rentals are not defined in the city’s zoning codes and no tax is collected from their operators. At city staff’s suggestion, City Council members reviewed the topic and began discussing possible actions during a June 9 Planning and Development Committee meeting.

Business Alliance director Jenna Sawicki and community development director Russel Colby presented staff’s recommendations to the committee.

Colby laid out the city’s options for regulating and enforcing short-term rentals by amending city code, and Sawicki spoke to the tourism opportunities that short-term rentals present.

Possible actions suggested by staff included amending city code to define and permit short-term rentals, enforcing zoning regulations to restrict their locations, imposing a new tax and creating a registry or licensing program to set standards, improve management and allow for marketing opportunities.

Sawicki said short-term rentals allow the city to welcome more visitors without adding infrastructure. She said short-term renters tend to spend more at local businesses than hotel guests, and the units provide needed overflow on busy weekends when hotels reach capacity.

Colby shared background information about rise of short-term rentals and an overview of the current inventory within the city.

Colby said the inventory of short-term rentals has more than tripled in the past five years, with at least 47 currently active listings in St. Charles, more than half of which are operated out of single-family homes.

While Colby said the city has received few complaints about the existing short-term rental units, the recommended measures would give the city power to enforce violations, which they currently cannot.

“Staff cannot issue any type of written zoning approval allowing a short‐term rental use, as this is not identified anywhere in the code. Therefore, owners are advised that they are proceeding at their own risk when operating a short‐term rental in a residential district,” Colby said in a memo.

Colby said taxing short-term rentals would access untapped revenue for the city and recommended a tax similar to the hotel operators tax of roughly 5% of sales.

Colby said if St. Charles had imposed the tax last year, it would have collected over $70,000 from the $1,275,684 in revenue that short-term rentals amassed in 2024.

Ward 2 Alderman Ryan Bongard said short-term rentals were a big problem in his ward, north of Route 64 and east of Persimmon Drive. His main issue was with their operation out of single-family homes in neighborhoods and close proximity to schools.

“While I don’t want to restrict a potential business owner from making a living... Certainly, with single-family homes in neighborhoods, it would seem logical that this is something we should restrict,” Bongard said. “That problem is already here, so putting up some guard rails around how people utilize these properties, I think, is incredibly important.”

Five people spoke during public comment, each expressing concerns about short-term rentals in the community.

Resident Andrea Huntzicker said a short-term rental in her community, the Fox Chase subdivision off Dunham Road, has completely changed her experience of living in her neighborhood. She cited noise and parking issues, drug and alcohol use, and other problems the short-term rental allegedly created.

“We take our community really seriously, we moved from the city to out here so that we could have this sense of community and safety, and now I feel like that’s being infringed upon,” Huntzicker said. “We did not buy that house thinking that we were going to be across the street from an AirBnb and not know who’s staying there every night.”

Based on direction from City Council members and concerns from residents, staff is expected to begin crafting a code amendment and fee structure to be brought back for further review and discussion at a future committee meeting.