DAPHNE — City property owners wanting to rent out houses or rooms using services such as Airbnb or Vrbo must now have a Daphne business license under new municipal regulations.

Daphne City Council voted unanimously Monday, Feb. 20, to require business licenses for short-term rentals.

Councilman Ron Scott said he does not oppose short-term rentals for visitors but that some property owners are using the programs to turn their houses into full-time commercial lodging sites.

"The concept of Airbnb and Vrbo; the concept is pretty cool," Scott said. "The problem is what is happening is they've become housing for itinerant workers who are working all over the country. It is not like a family coming in to rent. It is multiple individuals who are not related to each other basically having a boarding house. So, we have got to make sure we are protecting the rights of the homeowners who expect a reasonably quiet environment in which they have made an investment in their home."

John Lake, a member of the Lake Forest Property Owners Board of Directors, said rentals are affecting traffic and parking in some areas of the subdivisions.

"I hope y'all will look at this more closely for the issue of residents and where it is because the appropriateness," Lake told council members. "I've heard of a home on Lakeview where people move in once a week, once a month for a week and whole streets are blocked. All the neighborhood is up in an uproar and then they leave and it's the kind of thing you want to watch and want to keep from happening here in quiet neighborhoods and we might want to look at how to tighten it up a little bit to keep that from happening."

Patrick Collins, a lawyer representing several homeowners' associations, said most property restrictions do not cover short-term rentals.

"Most covenants do not restrict it because it used to be that they would think that you can't do a business, you can't operate a business out of your home in a residential area and most people would assume that would include a short-term rental business under Alabama law, but it does not," Collins said.

He said rentals are becoming a problem throughout the area.

"This is a concern for all of Daphne that doesn't have covenants that restrict short-term rental use," Collins said. "It's just something that I would encourage the city and you guys particularly to look at carefully because there are some. I'm not really against short-term rentals. I just know there are some problems that come out of short-term rentals that should probably be addressed before you allow it in the whole city."

Collins said some property owners do not live in the area and are not affected by issues such as traffic and parking.

"I have cases right now that are pending where I represent associations and one here in Daphne where the people that come in on a weekly basis and rent for a few days, block traffic," Collins said. "They park their trucks and their vehicles and all that in the streets and in the front yard and it creates problems, and the owner doesn't live here, and the owner is not as concerned as maybe an owner who lives here. It's different if it's next door to your house, but if it's somebody living in Oklahoma or somebody living in south Florida. They're not as concerned."

The council also voted to table a vote on part of another ordinance dealing with short-term rentals until the Daphne Planning Commission could consider issues such as parking requirements.

Council President Angie Phillips said city ordinances need to be updated. She said tourist homes and lodging sites are only allowed in areas with "B" zoning designations, for business, but not in residential, or "R" areas.

"One of the things that needs to be discerned is whether or not a tourist home in our existing land-use ordinance incorporates Airbnb and Vrbo because right now the only thing that we have that addresses that short-term rental in that regard is the lodging and tourist home and that's limited to several of the B-1, B-2, B3, maybe R-4 and that is with special exception from BZA and if we were to pass this, particularly this section that Councilman Scott says that he would like for us to remove, then we would be giving by right our residents of R-1, R-3, R-3, R-4, R-5 and MU the ability to do short-term rentals and the other complication of that is there are many covenants and restrictions that were written prior to short-term rentals," she said.