Lafayette’s short-term rental rules take effect (2024)

At this time last year, Lafayette’s ban on short-term rentals was still up in the air. That ban is now in effect, prohibiting operations like Airbnb and VRBO in single-family neighborhoods, just in time for the fall festival season when travelers head in droves to Lafayette.

Operators say the consequences, intended and otherwise, are now emerging. Many have canceled bookings made months in advance to comply with the law and worry about the impact on Lafayette’s busy season. And they also say the law remains very much unclear, as some operators have sought rezonings or ways to work around the law.

“I had to cancel 25 short-term contracts that were occurring after Oct. 6,” says Richard Gaspard, a Lafayette STR owner. “I let people reserve after Oct. 6 in hopes that [the ban] would be deferred. It didn’t happen, so I had to go to 25 different reservation guests and cancel.”

Gaspard says many travelers have now been unable to find a place to stay in Lafayette during the busy festival season.

“We live in a free enterprise system, right? Some people just do not like staying in hotels,” says Gaspard. “They like the ability to pull up to a house, park in a covered parking space, and be right next to the house.”

Gisele Menard, another STR owner, says she is worried about the effect the newly in-place ban will have on the festival season.

“We’re already in that community, that services UL, services Downtown, all the festivals, and all the Mardi Gras events. Those of us who are strategically located to service those areas are now told we can’t,” says Menard.

District 2 City Councilman Andy Naquin, the sponsor of the STR ban ordinance, sees the situation quite differently.

“I do not see this as a restriction to tourism as there are many accessible STRs in other zoning areas. This is not a complete ban; it is simply a zoning restriction for reasonable protection of our RS areas,” says Naquin.

While Lafayette’s rules don’t totally outlaw short-term rentals, their use of zoning as the premise for regulation dramatically restricts where they can operate.Lafayette’s rules allow short-term rentals to operate in mixed-use and commercial districts, but large swaths of the city are totally off limits. Residential single-family zoning makes up roughly 75% of residential zoning in the city of Lafayette. Many homeowners in those neighborhoods sought the ban, arguing STRs were disruptive, effectively forcing them to live next to hotels, with strangers regularly cycling in and out.

“These are residential single-family dwellings. That’s the zoning,” Stephanie Cornay Dugan, a vocal opponent of STRs told The Current in July 2023, as the City Council mulled options for regulating the industry. “Why should it be more complex than that? This is lodging. Do we have zoning ordinances for a reason, or should we just throw all the zoning ordinances out?”

STR owners counter that their operations represent investment in some neglected neighborhoods. “It’s helped to improve other housing stock that were around us, because both of the blocks were blighted when we got our houses, so we kind of took a chance. We saw the potential, and it paid off,” notes Menard.

What’s next for Lafayette short-term rentals?

More than a year after the ban was passed, many STR owners are uncertain about how the enforcement and permitting process will work.

“The ordinance wasn’t very well written; to my knowledge, it has no teeth in it,” says STR owner Pat Mould. “I don’t even know what my penalty would be if I was to continue to operate.”

Naquin says enforcement is in the hands of the Community Development & Planning director, while complaints will be run through that office and/or the Lafayette Police Department. Violators can be subject to fines, license suspension/revocation and/or cease and desist orders, depending on the violation.

The planning director is allowed to levy fines and/or revoke licenses, but the ordinance gives no specifics on the severity of fines. That oversight also requires additional manpower, but LCG has not allocated more funding to oversee these STRs operating at various levels all over the city.

Some STR owners in restricted zones have looked for ways to keep operating, by applying for rezoning or converting their properties from conventional rent houses to medium- or long-term rentals. Bans in other cities have often led to a black market of short-term rentals in light of lax enforcement.

Gaspard owns a duplex in the Saint Streets and as of Oct. 6 has switched to what he calls mid-term renting, instead of pursuing a rezoning. These are rentals of more than 30 days, avoiding the ban, but less than 6 months, which would be considered long-term.

Lafayette’s new STR rules are coming online. What are they?

Operators will need to apply for permits by April 1. A ban in single family neighborhoods takes effect in October.

“We believe in beautification. We believe in trying to create a more valuable neighborhood with our little piece of real estate,” says Gaspard. “And I’m going to continue to do that, whether it be mid-term rental or long-term.”

While rezoning parcels has been possible for some STRs in single-family zones, owners like Mould, a Lafayette-based chef, have seen their costly applications for rezoning denied by the City Council.

So-called “spot zoning” was an outcome some predicted since the City Council approved the first rezoning for an STR on Sterling Street.

“We should really, from my perspective, discourage this from being the avenue to deal with these types of issues,” District 4 City Councilman Thomas Hooks told The Current in February. “I don’t want that to be read as pro-STR or anti-STR. It’s really about what’s a good policy tool. This does not feel like it, in terms of rezoning individual lots for particular uses. I think we will see more of these, [and] I think we’ll need a better answer than the rezoning process.”

The practice has been uneven. Mould was denied a rezoning application, as was a neighbor. Their properties on Cedar Crest Court were among Lafayette’s first Airbnb listings and operated for more than a decade. Despite its proximity to Downtown, Mould’s property is in a single-family zone, designated RS-1 in Lafayette’s code.

“Those applying for rezoning have to consider the location of their [rental],” says Naquin.

Mould believes his rental should have been treated like other rentals that have been granted zoning changes. Like these properties, his is close to mixed-use zoning, and he hoped that proximity would give his application the edge.

“I’m surrounded by RM-1 over here. I got University, I got Congress, I got Simcoe … and I still can’t get my property rezoned,” says Mould, referring to Lafayette’s designation for mixed-use neighborhoods (RM-1) that permit both residential properties and some commercial development.

Mould’s property is roughly 250 feet from the boundary of the nearest residential mixed and commercial zones. His block is a small single-family zone surrounded on all sides by other zoning.

Mould is still unsure what his plans are for the property, but he is now out more than $1,200 for the failed zoning application and related costs. He says he had continued issues with long-term renters before switching the property to an STR.

“I can’t let them sit there and not generate revenue of some kind. So, it is concerning,” says Mould.

Naquin believes STRs in residential areas contribute to housing and quality-of-life issues, and says the council voting to limit STRs reflects this.

“These areas are best served by long-term inhabitants who return to their place of residence, get their mail, park their cars in their driveway and interact with the neighbors as neighbors,” the councilman says.