Plano Star Courier
By Winston Henvey / Star Local Media
January 24, 2023

The Plano City Council saw two housing items in its Monday meeting. The first centered around short-term rentals and how the city aims to regulate these entities and prevent further nuisances and criminal activity.

Discussions around short-term rentals began on Oct. 10, where council aimed to understand the landscape of Plano’s short-term rental market and enforce a process that would prevent litigation against the city.

On Nov. 14, 2022, council considered a short-term rental registration ordinance but tabled the item to a future meeting.

At Monday’s meeting, City of Plano Planning Director Christina Day told council that city staff members have met with Arlington city staff to understand their process and solution. The city has also conducted and will continue its community outreach to understand resident concerns.

The city has been interviewing possible third-party data consultants and is close to selecting a vendor, Day said. These consultants will monitor short-term rental platforms and cross-reference them with publicly available data to identify short-term rentals throughout the city.

According to the city, there were 141 calls for service at known short-term rental locations over 57 properties in 2022. Almost half of the calls came from six of the 57 properties.

Day said that while discussions are scheduled to continue in February, they may be postponed to March if a quorum is not present.

City Manager Mark Israelson said the city will keep residents informed of feedback opportunities.

The second item centered around Community Housing Development Organization (CHODO) history in Plano.

From 1999 to 2014, the organization applied for funds annually and received approximately $1,773,213.78 of federal funds in those 15 years, according to a presentation by Neighborhood Services Director Lori Schwarz. The Plano Housing Commission (PHC) was able to assist approximately 37 households with these funds.

On July 12, 2017, the Plano Housing Commission requested to terminate their existing contract with the city and stated this was due to rising construction costs that would prohibit the sale of the new units to households at or below 80% of the area median income, as required by HUD.

Due to PHC’s withdrawal, $187,185 set-aside for the creation of affordable housing units went unallocated. To keep the funding, a new CHDO had to commit the funds to a specific project by November 30, 2017.

Since October 2017, the organization has received $587,185 of HOME funds for acquisition, rehabilitation and resale of five homes to eligible homebuyers. The organization has $200,000 of HOME funds remaining and has until December 31, 2023 to commit these funds to two projects, Schwarz said.

At the meeting, council gave consensus to see what local nonprofits are available to receive funding.

Councilmember Julie Holmer proposed that the funds should also go toward housing rehabilitation, not just the construction of new houses. While allowed, Schwarz said that if the city brings one aspect of an existing house up to code, all other parts of the house must be brought up to code as well.