As the popularity of short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO explode, there are legitimate questions about the zoning and building code implications of those kinds of uses.

Warren County officials are in the early stages of exploring a short-term rental ordinance.

And they want public feedback at the outset.

Deputy Planning Director Michael Lyon said his goal is to present a draft ordinance to the county’s Planning Commission in March.

He acknowledged there are “so many people coming from various sides” of the issue and said, currently, such uses are neither “approved or declined.”

“We’re really looking for input,” Lyon stressed. “(There are) so many differing opinions.”

He said the focus, from his perspective, will be “what’s going to benefit the county and our landowners.”

As of Thursday, there are 118 homes listed on Airbnb in Warren County. VRBO lists 124 in the region.

The arguments in support of these uses identify the revenue stream that some realize as well as issues regarding the personal use of personal property.

Some of the opposition can be called NIMBY — Not In My Back Yard.

“It’s the transient nature of Airbnbs that is the biggest concern,” Lyon said.

He said opposition he’s heard raises concerns about different people constantly next door as well as the potential for “partying into the wee hours.” He noted, however, that he’s received no such complaints regarding any such parties.

However, he did acknowledge an incident at an Airbnb in Pittsburgh earlier this year that resulted in two dead and nine injured in a shooting at a party.

Opponents have “valid complaints,” Lyon acknowledged.

He said there has been a shift from people renting out their personal homes to people buying homes for the sole purpose of renting.

Webinars he’s participated in details that there are also companies purchasing homes to use solely as short-term rentals.

He said that effectively takes apartments out of a community’s housing stock.

“(It’s) too early to say what it’s (a county ordinance) going to look like,” Lyon added. “We’re different than downtown Pittsburgh.”

There also are “not a ton of comparables,” he added, when looking at what other counties have done.

The “big argument” is that short-term rentals should be considered commercial properties. That, he said, would result in many disappearing because the building code requires commercial structures to have sprinklers.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court weighed in on the issue in a 2019 opinion in Slice of Life v. Hamilton Township Zoning Hearing Board.

According to that ruling available at justia.com, the court was asked to “determine whether a zoning ordinance that defines ‘family’ as requiring ‘a single housekeeping unit’ permits the purely transient use of a property located in a residential zoning district.”

The court acknowledged that the question “arises based on the increasingly popular concept of web-based rentals or single-family homes to vacationers and other transient users for a few days at a time.”

The final ruling was that “the purely transient use of a house is not a permitted use in a residential zoning district” thus defined.

Lyon said he is not aware, though, that the ruling in that case has been made binding.

He said he doesn’t foresee a residential zone restriction but acknowledged the need to be careful, especially given that many municipalities in the county are unzoned.

In light of that, it would be possible for different regulations to be in place on different sides of the Allegheny River — Pleasant and Tidioute are zoned while Brokenstraw is not, for example.

There are also economic implications.

Lyon said someone who comes to stay at an Airbnb is likely spending money somewhere else.

“That’s what we want them to do,” he said. “We have to look (at) what Warren County is going to do for the future. That’s part of it.”

He encouraged anyone with thoughts to email him at mlyon@warrencountypa.gov.

“It would be helpful to know what people are thinking,” he said.