SALEM — City council is expected to review a proposed new ordinance which would regulate short-term rental operations within city limits in its meeting tonight.

The ordinance was first discussed in a Jan. 27 meeting of the rules and ordinances committee, which ultimately voted unanimously to forward it to the city council for review.

If approved by the city council, the ordinance will establish regulations for short-term rental units like those listed on services like Airbnb or Vrbo, and defines a short term rental as “any room or dwelling that is rented wholly or partly for a fee for less than thirty consecutive days be persons other than the permanent occupant or owner from which the permanent occupant or owner receive monetary compensation.” It further specifies that it does not matter if that compensation “is paid directly by the short-term rental guest or is collected and remitted to the permanent occupant or owner by a hosting platform” and that this definition “does not include a room in any hotel or motel as defined elsewhere in the codified ordinances of the City of Salem.”

If approved by council, a property owner looking to rent their property as a short-term unit will be required to apply for a permit “to the Salem City Housing Director, or his/her designee” for each unit which “shall take effect on the day of issuance and shall expire on Dec. 31st of the year in which it is issued.” Once a permit has been issued for a given unit for the first time, it can be “renewed by the property owner before the end of each calendar year” rather than applying for a new permit. The deadline to file for that annual renewal is specified as “the first Monday of November of the year in which the permit is set to expire.” The processing fee for permits is set at $72, and the ordinance specifies that “city council shall have authority to amend the fee amount from time to time to reflect the costs of administering this chapter in the city-wide fee schedule.”

Like the city’s existing rental regulations, the ordinance also sets a list of standards required for all short-term rentals including retaining a liability insurance policy for the property, installing appropriately located and functional smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and limiting the number of vehicles which can be parked at the unit to “the number that can be garaged on-premises plus two that may park in the attached driveway.” An initial violation of the ordinance would be an unclassified misdemeanor and a fine of “not more than” $500, with that fine increasing to “no more than” $1,000 for any subsequent violations.

In that rules and ordinances committee meeting City Councilman and Committee Chairman Jeff Stockman said that these rentals are already required to register and obtain an occupancy license under the same system as other rentals. However, he argues that a dedicated ordinance for short-term rentals with a dedicated permitting process would facilitate the enforcement process and help to ensure that all rental units in the city were safe.