The fight against short-term rentals in North Texas came to Lewisville Monday night as residents — some dressed in white shirts with the words “Homes Not Hotels” on the front — filled city council chambers for a public hearing on the issue.
For members of the Lewisville Neighborhood Coalition, the hearing was the first step to getting an ordinance in place to restrict short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.
Short-term rentals, or STRs, are residential dwellings available for guest lodging for a period ranging from 1 to 29 days, including dwellings listed on vacation rental websites like Airbnb or Vrbo.
Several North Texas cities including Dallas, Fort Worth and Planohave restricted them in recent months.
Now, Lewisville residents like Jeff Woods hope to do the same for their city.
“Traffic is just a huge concern, trash noise, police,” said Woods, who has lived in Lewisville his whole life. “It really has come to the point that we are actually living in fear because it's almost like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop because you never know what's going to happen the next weekend.”
At a packed City hall on Monday night October 16th 2023 a large number of city residents and constituents turned out to speak on the impact of short term rentals on their neighborhoods. Short Term Rental owners, many from outside of Lewisville spoke about their businesses but few acknowledged the negative impact they have on neighbors.
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