The village of Lincolnshire is poised to outlaw short-term home rentals, and officials say they will visit Airbnb’s site from time to time, looking for violators.
If the trustees give final approval to a new set of rules, no one in Lincolnshire will be able to rent their house for less than three months — effectively eliminating the short-term vacations that Airbnb specializes in. Mayor Liz Brandt spelled it out: Sites like that, and the questions they bring to quiet suburbs, are not wanted in Lincolnshire.
“That was our original objective,” Brandt said.
Village Hall officials first started receiving complaints about short-term rentals early in the summer, Brandt said. Community development director Steve McNellis said that, after getting a few tips, they started checking the site themselves, looking for postings.
McNellis said officials will not make a regular habit of patrolling airbnb.com
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for Lincolnshire listings, and they will continue to rely on complaints from neighbors. But he said they may still check the site on occasion.Glenview, Wilmette and Evanston are among the other municipalities who spent the summer looking at how, if at all, they want to regulate the modern-day bed and breakfast that Airbnb has become.
Lincolnshire’s new rules will affect every kind of living space in Lincolnshire, beginning with single-family dwellings, but also covering multi-family buildings. Lincolnshire has only a few of those — but the law would also cover new multi-family dwellings that could be built in the coming years.
The new code leaves little to chance: it specifies that homeowners cannot rent out treehouses, or even space in the backyard for someone to pitch a tent. It does, however, permit month-to-month leases after an initial three-month lease agreement is completed.
The trustees gave the new rules unanimous first-round approval during their Oct. 26 meeting. The measure will go on the consent agenda for a final vote Nov. 9.
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