Travelers looking for temporary accommodations in Winnetka homes or apartments will soon have to look elsewhere, as trustees moved forward at the July 7 Village Board meeting with plans to ban short-term rentals in the village, such as those offered on sites like Airbnb and VRBO.
The village defines these types of short-term stays as any kind of “rental, lease, sublease, license,” or occupation of a “dwelling unit, residential dwelling” or room for less than 60 consecutive days.
New restrictions proposed in the short-term rental ban would also limit residential turnover to no more than two “unique tenants” during a 12-month period.
Month-to-month extensions of rentals would still be allowed, however, so long as it satisfies the minimum 60-day rental period requirement.
Community Development Director Scott Mangum told Pioneer Press short-term rentals have always been prohibited in the village by virtue of their lack of inclusion in Winnetka’s zoning code.
“The code’s sort of silent on it, so it’s not allowed because it’s silent, but with that we don’t have any definitions for how long the short-term rental [can be],” Mangum said.
Without having language defining these types of stays, short-term rentals are nearly impossible to enforce, he added.
While Mangum said there was no one incident or complaint to spur mandating new restrictions on short-term rentals, discussions began following a staff discovery of a local listing on Airbnb dating back to 2021.
According to village documents, officials were able to track down the property address and owner of the short-term rental listing, who informed the village that some rental stays “are for multiple months, while others are shorter.”
The host told officials renters are either “former Winnetka residents or guests of current Winnetka residents.”
Staff later communicated to the Airbnb host that short-term rentals are prohibited in the village, prompting the property owner to question what duration would be allowed, if any, since there was no current code provision to specify an allowed length of stay.
Defining short-term rentals in Winnetka’s current zoning code would allow for better village regulation and the prevention of future “nuisance complaints,” like excessive noise or other disruptive activity coming from renters, officials said.
When these restrictions were first introduced to trustees in April, Mangum presented a 2023 survey conducted by the Northwest Municipal Conference listing 11 out of 20 neighboring municipalities that have already prohibited short-term rentals of less than 30 days.
Among those to ban these types of stays include Elk Grove Village, Glencoe, Niles, Northfield, Wheeling and Wilmette.
Others like Evanston, Hanover Park, Lincolnwood and Northbrook have passed specific ordinance language to regulate short-term rentals, but still allow for them.
In February, the Village of Skokie approved an 18-month pilot program to regulate rentals on popular sites like Airbnb and VRBO, establishing new licensing requirements, fees and operating limits for interested property owners.
During the July 7 Board meeting, Winnetka Trustee Tina Dalman voiced concerns surrounding the current “exemption for family [members],” occupying a residence temporarily.
Under the current drafted ordinance, new regulations would allow an exception for a family member or invited guest of the property owner to occupy a dwelling unit on a noncommercial basis for a short period of time. This would also include an existing Winnetka resident who is displaced from their own residence due to construction, renovation or other circumstances.
“I’m just concerned that could be a very big loophole that people could get creative in ways that we can’t anticipate,” Dalman told trustees.
“I think the concept of a short-term rental is for the exchange of any sort of thing of value, whether it’s compensation or something, and I’ve seen in other jurisdictions that if you just tighten up the definition of rental, it would take care of the concerns about letting family members or friends use your house on a temporary basis.”
“It’s kind of important that we get this going,” said Trustee Bridget Orsic in response to Dalman’s push to introduce additional language in the ordinance.
“I would want to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and if we need to tweak any definitions…I just don’t want to keep pushing this off, I know this was kind of a current issue.”
Winnetka Village President Bob Dearborn then suggested tabling the short-term rental ordinance for adoption until the village’s next Board meeting, to provide time to “tighten up some of the language.”
Three village trustees were also not present at the July 7 meeting and this would allow for them to vote on it as well, Dearborn added.
The Board then unanimously moved to introduce the ordinance banning short-term rentals.
Trustees will consider adopting the ban at their next scheduled Board meeting on July 21.
