Lakewood council puts off vote on pause for new short-term rentals until November 2

Lakewood City Council on Monday, October 19, put off a vote on a six-month pause on new short-term rentals until Monday, November 2, after a resident objected that council was about to vote on a different version than the one published with the meeting agenda.

No minutes have been published for the meeting. The Lakewood Provisional Post watched the recording in full and reviewed council records on short-term rentals back to May.

A short-term rental is a home rented out for less than 30 days. The pause would stop the city from licensing or registering any new one, in any kind of building, an assistant law director told council. It would last six months, or until council passes rules for short-term rentals.

Rentals already registered could keep operating. Registering means checking the short-term rental box on the city’s housing license form, said Vice President Kyle Baker, who wrote the resolution with Councilmember Tom Bullock.

Owners who have not registered would have until the pause takes effect, 14 days after it passes. Existing short-term rentals could not add units during the pause, though owners could still renovate or add space.

Baker suggested waiting until November 2. If council passes it then, the pause would take effect Monday, November 16 at the earliest, and owners would need to register before then. The amended version is to appear on the November 2 agenda.

Baker said the pause is meant to give council time to write rules. He has asked the law department to draft an ordinance based on Cleveland’s, to be introduced within 30 to 45 days, and said Lakewood would adapt it because the city does not have Cleveland’s building and tax departments.

Councilmember Bryan Evans, who chairs the Housing, Planning and Development Committee, said he would call a committee meeting on it as soon as possible.

Lakewood has never adopted rules specifically for short-term rentals. The checkbox on the housing license form is an administrative practice that council never voted on, Bullock and Baker said.

The only zoning rules that could apply date to 2006 and cover bed and breakfasts. They allow those only in an owner-occupied single-family home with architectural, historic or cultural significance, in a commercial or multi-family district. In July, Bullock wrote that it is “not clear” short-term rentals are a legal use in Lakewood.

The city knows of several dozen short-term rentals, Bullock wrote then, while listing sites show several hundred. AirDNA, which tracks the market, counted 356 active listings in Lakewood in August, up 12% from a year earlier.

Bullock’s own proposal, Ordinance 28-2026, would allow short-term rentals only where the owner lives on site. It would bar them from condos, apartment buildings of three or more units and anywhere within 1,500 feet of a school, and has been in committee since July.

□SOURCE · portal.laserfiche.com · Checked October 21Bullock's July 6 proposal and letter to council↗

During public comment, former council president Dan O’Malley said his brother owns a short-term rental in Lakewood. He accused Bullock of a “years-long effort” to go after his brother and family, including calls to police and the building department about the property.

Bullock did not address the specifics. He said some comments had “gotten personal” and council should not make policy based on that, and that he has received calls about other rentals as well. Baker said he would not get into the dispute: “You can’t impugn this legislation. I drafted this.”

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WRITTEN BYCory RobertsA Lakewood resident since graduating from Case Western University in 2012.11 articlesView profile →