Chatham County eyes short-term rentals crackdown

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Residents packed a Chatham County meeting with a message about short-term rentals: the problem isn’t just the rules — it’s enforcing them.

County staff held the stakeholder meeting Monday evening at the Memorial Stadium Community Room to gather public input on possible updates to the county’s short-term rental ordinance, which was adopted in 2021 and applies in unincorporated Chatham County.

Officials said the county wants to properly license all short-term rentals, respond to neighborhood concerns such as noise, parties, public safety, occupancy limits, parking and density, and ensure hotel/motel taxes are collected from rental platforms.

Under Georgia law, officials say that rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO are required to remit hotel/motel taxes to local governments.

County staff said enforcement issues often arise on weekends and overnight, when police may be the only option for non-emergency calls. The county also uses a third-party vendor to track short-term rental listings and related services.

Proposed additions discussed at the meeting included setting minimum distance requirements between short-term rentals to limit saturation in neighborhoods for new licenses, lowering occupancy limits for properties on septic systems compared to sewer systems, and requiring posted outdoor notices listing parking rules, occupancy limits, noise restrictions and emergency contact information.

Several residents said they want the county to focus on enforcement before adding more requirements. Michael Cates said the county needs someone dedicated to checking compliance.

“The county has to enforce what we got on the books, plus adding more,” Cates said. “What they need to do is hire … a person to go around and check behind these VRBO’s to make sure that they’re compliant because that’s not happening right now.”

Marcus Lotson, assistant director of Building Safety and Regulatory Services, said the county plans to increase enforcement.

“We are committed to, however, increase enforcement both in conjunction to CCPD as well as building safety staff,” Lotson said.

County staff said Monday’s meeting was the first step in the public input process. Officials say they expect draft changes to move through readings in the coming months and hope updated rules can take effect later this year, with July 1 discussed as a target date.