Gladewater City Council members and local officials took the time to listen and to lay everything out before adopting new rules for short-term rentals at the local lake.
It took the better part of a year, but new regulations are in place as of June 18. It’ll take time and a bit more effort to get everyone on the same page, but the course correction’s underway.
As of last week’s council meeting, short-term rentals (STRs) at Lake Gladewater are capped at 10 percent of about 300 city-owned lake lots. Homeowners – if they go through a new permitting process and pay the necessary fees – can sub-let their lakeside residences through Airbnb, VRBO and similar platforms so long as they (and their paying guests) abide by City Hall’s new rules, spelled out in an addendum to lake lot leases.
The guidelines cover everything from maintaining a 24/7 contact person for emergency responders to respecting occupancy, keeping parking under control and carrying adequate insurance.
“I personally don’t like a ton of rules and regs,” said Mayor Brandy Flanagan-Shipp. “We live in Texas; we like to do what we want to do with our properties.
That said, “I think we struck a good balance. It’s not too tight, it’s not too lenient. It’s a good balance between our land and our homeowners.”
There are some lingering questions: What’s ahead for Hotel Occupancy Tax collections? What’s the plan for STRs elsewhere in the city limits? How will the council address their own concerns about single ownership of multiple lake lots?
For now, initial rules are in place and ready for beta testing. They’re headed for the mailboxes of the lake’s lessees.
“It’s a very good document,” councilman Milton Anderson agreed. “It answered the concerns of the people out at the lake, and it also answered the concerns of the leasers.
“Will we ever have 30 STRs out there? Probably not.”
Adopted unanimously 6-0 (council member Kevin Clark was absent) the new lease addendum does not explicitly address Hotel Occupancy Taxes related to the lake lots. Councilman Stoney Stone says he wants to make sure those monies are being collected and going to the right place.
It took months of effort, and no small amount of consternation along the way, but the first part of the job’s done. The mayor said she’s grateful for the dialogue, and that it’s resulted in a solution.
“I love that the citizens out on the lake have been just as proactive on it with us.”