Committee Wrestles with Restricting Airbnb

The thorny subject of Swarthmoreans renting out their homes for short periods of time was debated by the Planning and Zoning Committee of Swarthmore Borough Council at its monthly meeting on November 14. The issue was brought to the committee’s attention by neighbors of a house frequently rented out on Airbnb—sometimes to large groups—when the owners are away. The house is advertised as being able to host up to 12 people. “Renting a house for a weekend to a bunch of people and not living in the house can be disruptive to a neighborhood,” said Lauren McKinney, a member of the committee. “Because if the neighbor’s not home, then it’s…constantly different people there. It doesn’t seem as safe.”

Committee chair Betsy Larsen disagreed: “I think [having short-term rentals] is almost a service to our community, a richness to our community, another dimension—as long as people are behaving.” 

“It’s not an easy issue,” observed committee member Mary Walk. “There’s a part of me that feels like I wouldn’t want that next to me, and there’s the other half that feels like I don’t want the borough to tell me [what I can do with my house].”

The Zoning Code

Currently, short-term rentals are not regulated differently than any other housing in the borough, which is governed by the Swarthmore Zoning Code. Key to such regulation is the definition of “family.” The code states that a “dwelling” is to be “used for human habitation by a family.” This means that short-term rentals, too, can only be inhabited by a family as the word is defined by the code. Different municipalities define the term differently. For zoning purposes Swarthmore’s code defines a family as:

(a) A single person occupying a dwelling unit;

(b) Two or more persons related by blood or marriage occupying a dwelling unit, plus not more than two boarders, two roomers or two lodgers; or

(c) Not more than three unrelated persons occupying a dwelling unit, living together. 

More than three unrelated people cannot, therefore, legally share an Airbnb or VRBO rental in Swarthmore. Renting to a large family, potentially including aunts and second cousins and step-grandparents, however, is allowed.

Much of the committee’s discussion concerned what regulations might be possible or desirable. Should short-term rentals only be permitted when the owners are at home? Should they be restricted to some limited number of times per year per dwelling? Should they only be legal in one part of town? 

Defining ‘Family’

Because the definition of “family” is so deeply tied up with this issue, the committee also talked about changing the borough’s definition of the term, something other places have done. Hamilton Township, for example, uses the term “single housekeeping unit,” which is more flexible in some ways and more rigorous in others. Under such a definition, a group of five friends committed to living as a unit in an ongoing way would be considered a family, but ten relatives coming together from across the country to celebrate a birthday would not. Hamilton’s short-term rental law was the subject of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling last spring affirming that municipalities may regulate short-term rentals differently from long-term ones.

Larsen has been concerned about the borough’s definition of family for some time. She considers it “outdated” and would prefer a more open-ended definition, something “that jibes with some of the values of our community,” she said. “So we’re not trying to say you have to be married, or you have to be whatever. As long as you consider yourselves a unit.” 

Borough Manager Jane Billings brought up the possibility of defining family differently for short-term rentals than for other purposes. She said she doesn’t know how many short-term rentals are currently available in Swarthmore but suspects there are more than people might guess. She also expressed the view that an ordinance addressing the issue could dissuade people considering buying a house in town purely with the intention of renting it out on Airbnb, an increasingly common occurrence across the country. 

Aging-in-Place

Walk pointed out that some people rent parts of their homes to help defray the high cost of living in Swarthmore. She reminded the committee of a meeting about Airbnbs in accessory buildings that attracted large numbers of community members involved with the borough’s Aging-in-Place initiative. “I can’t afford my house for the taxes if you don’t let me rent something out,” Walk recalled people saying.

What’s Next

Two action items emerged from the meeting. Billings will send a letter from the borough to anyone she knows to be currently listing their home on short-term rental sites online, reminding them of the current zoning regulations concerning who can reside in a house, either short- or long-term. “I would guess [people] have absolutely no idea,” she said. 

McKinney will draft language toward a potential regulation and bring it back to the committee, which will then forward it to the Planning Commission for consideration. Walk stressed the need to bring the idea to the whole council to see if there was an appetite for regulation among the group.

“I really wish there were a way to get a feel for where the community sits on this,” Chair Larsen said. “Are we going to be enacting a restriction where a lot of people are going, ‘Whoa, whoa, wait: I rent my house out every summer!’ Or are we going to be enacting a restriction where people are going to say, ‘Thank you, you’re addressing a problem…Or are people not going to care that much?” 

The Planning and Zoning Committee will meet again on Thursday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m.