(Photo by Josh)

The D.C. Zoning Commission will consider making changes to the city’s zoning code next week to permit short-term rentals through home-sharing platforms like Airbnb and VRBO, a move prompted by a letter from the D.C. Council urging they do so.

In the letter, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said the council’s 18-month effort to regulate the ever-expanding realm of home-sharing cannot move forward unless changes are made to the city’s zoning code, which currently prohibits short-term rentals of fewer than 30 days in many residential areas.

“It is imperative — both to the city’s finances and the need for a viable regulatory scheme, that the Zoning Regulations be revised,” reads the letter. “Accordingly, we request that the Zoning Commission initiate… emergency rulemaking, to permit home-sharing.”

The letter was signed by the Council’s other 12 members.

The Council was set to take a final vote last week on a bill that would have regulated and restricted home-sharing by limiting it to a person’s primary residence and imposing a 90-day cap if the home’s owner is not present during the rental. But the vote was postponed amid a barrage of questions from Council members on how the regulations would impact the existing 9,000 short-term rentals posted on platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, FlipKey and HomeAway if the Zoning Commission didn’t make parallel changes to the zoning code.

According to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt, if the Council were to pass its bill without the zoning code also being changed, anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the existing short-term rentals in D.C. would be considered ineligible for the permits the legislation requires they get. That could lead to an annual loss of up to $25 million in revenue that the Council would then have to make up for.

“The bill establishes as public policy that home-sharing — i.e., short-term rentals — are acceptable in residential zones. These rentals are to be permitted, by license, in any homeowner’s primary residence,” wrote Mendelson. “However, as you know, [the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] cannot issue licenses that are not in compliance with applicable regulations, including the Zoning Regulations. Thus, the need for the Zoning Commission to revise its regulations.”

Legislators in Montgomery County faced a similar quandary in drawing up their own regulations for home-sharing, but they had one advantage: they enjoy the power to rewrite the county’s zoning code, while in D.C. that power is limited to the independent Zoning Commission.

Airbnb and other home-sharing services still say the Council’s bill is too restrictive, and have been asking Mendelson to set a 180-day cap for short-term rentals where the owner is not present, and allow some residents who have second homes to use those exclusively for short-term rentals. Airbnb has warned that if the Council does pass the bill in its current form, it may take the issue directly to D.C. voters through a ballot measure.

The Zoning Commission is set to meet on Oct. 29 at 6 p.m., and the Council is expected to take a final vote on its bill on Nov. 13, though it would not take full effect until Oct. 2019.

This story originally published on WAMU.