Dallas was still mulling short-term rentals into the late night; no vote by 9 p.m.

The Dallas City Council was still considering possible new rules as of 9 p.m. on Wednesday that could restrict where short-term rentals can operate and make it mandatory that properties be licensed through the city to allow guests to stay.

On the table are recommendations greenlit by the City Plan Commission in December to change zoning rules to ban rentals listed on platforms like Airbnb from operating in residential neighborhoods, allow only one rental in a single unit, and require off-street parking. The proposal would also change city code to make it mandatory for properties to annually register with the city, pay related fees and taxes, adhere to occupancy and noise limits, have someone on file who can respond to the property within one hour to address any emergency concerns, and other new rules.

The stricter regulations in Dallas come after debate since at least 2020 on how the city should regulate short-term rentals. Residents have complained for years about the lack of city intervention to address the spread of the rentals in neighborhoods mostly made up of single-family homes and some of the properties being linked to gun violence, trash, noise and other quality of life concerns.

“Unfortunately, there is no solution that is going to please everyone and we know that,” City Manager T.C. Broadnax said. “This is a challenging issue, and we have done our best to work towards a sensible solution, not a perfect one.”

The city departments that oversee zoning and code enforcement recommended that the City Council reject the commission-backed option, which supporters have called the “Keep It Simple Solution”. The departments called for still allowing short-term rentals to be zoned to operate everywhere in the city and use code amendments to restrict where they can be to make it easier for the properties to be tracked.

The departments argued a ban would force nearly all short-term rentals registered with the city to shut down and would make enforcement difficult. City officials have also been saying since at least April that it may not provide the swift option to shut down problem properties as many residents hope.

Many Dallas short-term rental property owners and hosts have said they favor more city regulations but have rejected being banned from residential areas over concerns that it’s too heavy-handed. They fear it could mostly impact operators who have no complaints and use the platforms as a source of income.

The city has no rules in place to penalize bad operators. Property owners are supposed to register with the city, but there are no consequences for not doing so. The owners are required to collect taxes from their guests, report monthly and pay the tax to the city.

About 1,800 properties were registered as of May, and the city estimates another 1,300 could be operating in Dallas. But other sources, like data analytics website AirDNA, estimate as of Wednesday that there are more than 5,500 active short-term rentals in Dallas.