Morton Grove trustees last week sent an ordinance permitting Airbnb rentals in the village back to the Plan Commission to preserve its previous ban on such residential uses.
The Village Board is expected to reaffirm Morton Grove’s ban at its Jan. 23 meeting, after Trustee Janine Witko moved that the board send the ordinance back to the commission rather than simply rejecting it.
By rejecting the ordinance, the village would not have had a mechanism in place affirming its prohibition of Airbnbs, Witko said. Witko said the majority of the board opposes Airbnbs but the commission sought to give the board the option of changing its mind.
“The Plan Commission went down the road of possibly approving it,” she said. “This board was likely to not approve it, but we want to avoid leaving the text ambiguous.”
In August, the commission narrowly recommended the rewrite allowing Airbnbs by a 3-2 vote with one member absent, Witko said. “It was not a landslide,” she said.
Nonetheless, at least two trustees declined to say they will vote in favor of continuing the ban on Jan. 23.
Trustee John Thill cast the sole no vote against sending the ordinance back to the commission because, he said, he was confused by Witko’s motion.
“I thought it was going to be an up-and-down vote,” Thill said. The current ordinance is “antiquated” and needs to be updated, he said.
“There are other things we need to take care of before we can address this ordinance,” Thill said.
Asked if he would vote to support allowing Airbnbs, Thill said, “Come to the next meeting.”
Trustee Rita Minx, who voted in favor of sending the ordinance back to the commission, said she was not certain if she would vote in favor of continuing the ban, but pointed out that many residents support allowing Airbnbs.
“I honestly don’t know,” Minx said of her vote. “I know people enjoy them. I have heard they are nice and many people want them in the community and feel they do their own quality of control and neighbors shouldn’t be fearful.”
Before the vote, Minx asked village staff to provide all documentation from the August Plan Commission meeting at which it voted to present the revised ordinance to the Village Board.
“I just want to go over the information, just to get a better understanding of everything going on,” she said.
Steve Yates, an Antioch resident who runs an Airbnb in Morton Grove, said he checked with a village employee who said it was OK to operate the Airbnb despite the village’s ban.
But Yates, who attended last week’s meeting, said he recently received a letter from Community Development Administrator Zoe Heidorn informing him that he could be fined $750 a day for continuing to rent the Morton Grove home he owns as an Airbnb.
“It’s a nice house,” he said. “It’s not the average Airbnb flop house. The only problems we have are things like, ‘What is the wifi password?’ or ‘Where is the crib you said would be here?'”
Minx said she was not sure if the ban prohibits a type of business that could bring revenue to Morton Grove.
“Theoretically, it could be,” she said. “Is it? I don’t know.”
Witko said any revenue that would be generated for the village would be offset by the time and manpower staff would use to answer complaints and police would use to enforce the ordinance.
Trustee Saba Khan was absent from the Jan. 9 meeting at which the ordinance was sent back to the commission.
