ana033: Tim Battles Town Hall | Tom Woods Interviews Tim | Short Term Rental Ordinance

We released episode ana027: 11 SPOOKY Fears about Short Term Rentals | ASSUAGED! on Halloween in 2019. Hours later, there was a multiple homicide at an Airbnb renter’s Halloween party in Orinda, CA. Tim wrote a blog post discussing this incident with a view towards understanding what went so wrong.

In November 2019, Tom Woods interviewed Tim about the Orinda shooting and the broader topic of short term rentals. This was a more succinct presentation of our earlier episode, but they also covered some new ground.

Since then, Tim has spent over a year arguing against new regulations on short term rentals in his home town in Maine. At the same time, he renovated his basement into an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) for short-term rental in a race against the clock.

This episode starts with Tim’s interview on The Tom Woods Show, and then Tim reveals all the gory reality of small town politics. We close out with some profound lessons learned for libertarian principles and strategy.

Use hashtag #ana033 to reference this episode in a tweet, post, or comment

View full show notes at https://anarchitecturepodcast.com/ana033.

 

----more----Intro

Tim is now a recurring guest on The Tom Woods Show.

Joe was not invited back.

The Tom Woods Show, Episode 1542
Tom likes Airbnb
“There’s no way that this is going to be interesting”
Airbnb’s aren’t allowed in many NYC buildings
Short term rentals allow people to generate income from an unused asset
Concerns about depleting housing stock
Short term rentals are a longstanding property right
Single room occupancy (boarding houses)
Nuisances
Caution to libertarians: also defend property rights of neighbors
Libertarians have thought about these issues more than anyone else
The wedding venue next door – where every weekend is “September”

Short term rentals vs long term housing
Santa Monica, CA study – compared area with ban against areas with no ban – no significant impact found
2018 NYC study – 5,600 units off the market (out of 3.4 million) – 0.1% reduction in supply caused a 0.5% increase in rents?
Permitting delays and costs taken for granted

Airbnb’s role in mitigating nuisances
Airbnb is essentially a listing service, but with their own terms of service

Orinda Shooting
House rule: No Parties
“Airbnb Mansion Party”
Renter charged as accessory to murder

Airbnb three announcements
Verify all listings
Ban party houses – artificial intelligence to flag party rentals
24/7 neighbor hotline
Party houses leading to bans and restrictions – why has Airbnb allowed them for this long?

Regulating Short Term Rentals
Mostly at the local level
Bans
Owner occupancy
“One host, one home”
Limiting number of days per year
Existing regulations – Zoning – no transient occupancy
Building codes
NFPA life safety code – “family plus three”

Licensing, permitting, registration

Speaking out against regulations
Study the existing regulations
Address local concerns
Listen to the neighbors
Differentiate party houses
Get involved – nobody knows what to do
Home Rental Mediation Service
Anonymous complaint service
Noise violations difficult to enforce

I think you have a really unique and important podcast.

TOM WOODS
Discussion
Interview Reaction
Tom doesn’t often say upfront how boring the topic is
Tim immediately went off script
Earth, Wind and Fire joke bombed
Update on Orinda shooting – No convictions
Airbnb response – changed policy to revoke service for party houses
No more parties after COVID hit
Bookings disappeared during COVID, but came back when Maine had low case count

Airbnb verifying identities for listings
Airbnb Neighborhood Support Team

Tim Battles Town Hall
A red flag – Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) ordinance, no STR in an ADU
“A housing unit is a housing unit”
Tim posts his L’s – STR’s now on the agenda
Economic development committee meeting
Tim sings praises of the Town Manager
Is the Town Manager functionally similar to a privatized town?
Only 3 or 4 problematic properties
Noise ordinance enforcement – ambient noise louder than the ordinance allows. You can’t enforce intermittent disturbances
Informal workshop – Town Council, Planning Board, and one community representative – Tim!
“And then they asked what I thought…”
Draft ordinance is a laundry list of the usual concerns
Owner Occupancy requirement
Registration / License
Limit on rental duration
Occupancy Limit
Parking requirements
“Is there anything you like in it?”
“But there are just three more things…”

Not invited back to the second workshop
A list of listings
Rule #1: No chainsaw races… inside the house
Map of all listings in town
Viability (or lack thereof) of seasonal rentals
Ratio of listings in downtown area is consistent with the rest of town
A lot of units were ADU’s or single room rentals
Many listings on main roads, not in neighborhoods
72 Dwelling Units listed; 1.4% of all units in town
Highest concentration in downtown: 5% of properties
Affordable housing concerns
42 properties list the address as the owner’s mailing address
50% had 3 or more bedrooms
Most units in more expensive areas
Housing affordability crisis is caused by restrictive single family home zoning
Only 12 owners outside New England – most are second (vacation) homes
Short term renting requires constant attention to the property
Short term rental empire – Tim is the only short term rental emperor in town.

Data helps to debunk myths, but stories persuade
STR income helps people to afford their houses

Second workshop (without Tim)
Business license requirement
Minimum parking requirement – additional space required
Occupancy limit – 2 people per bedroom
Does nothing to limit big party houses
Hurts 1 or 2 bedroom units

2 guests? 3 Parking spaces!
A license is something they can take away
Vague wording of “violations”
Penalty: $500 per day. $180k per year?
“None of that stuff got a single mention”
Cap on licenses – effectively a ban
5% increase each year = 3 new licenses
“My wife was livid”
A strongly worded letter

Final revisions
Direct discussions with councilors
Tim is the special interest group
The last holdout – “I can walk to 12 listings within 5 minutes of my house”
Normalcy Bias
Second order effects of losing housing units – no school football team?
Higher priorities – parking changes and tax reassessments
The inefficiency of small town politics

Public Hearing
Cancelled due to COVID
Surprise hearing – notified by Airbnb, not the council
Zoom council meeting, mail-in comments
No public opposition to short term rentals
So little of the process is public – it’s a done deal
Every time they go back, it gets worse
One size fits all

Aftermath
Tim has applied for 3 licenses
Basement ADU project rushed to complete before end of year
60 licenses issued; 5% cap raised to 8%. Now 4 new licenses per year
Now they have to enforce it
Tim’s list – “eyes only” confidentiality
People try short term renting, don’t start out as a business
Waiting list
Re-evaluation of ordinance after 2 years
Tim has his special interest monopoly privilege
Fighting against the status quo
The ordinance does nothing to stop party houses
It could have been worse

Takeaways
Difficulty of public process
Drafting workshops aim to build consensus
It can’t be a direct democracy
Impossibility of rational discourse
Feelings don’t care about your facts
Councilors aren’t impartial
Libertarian awakening – there exist people who aren’t hyper-rational
Joe vs the Normies
People only care about comfort, convenience, complacency, and conformity
Aggressive Normieism – aggression of oblivion
City council is the pinnacle of normie aspiration

Don’t mess with dog people
A liberal sees the light on property rights
Confirmation Bias
Discourse can be messy
Discourse leading to legislation can cause real harm

Civil law for nuisance complaints – a lead balloon
Civil courts don’t work – too expensive and onerous for small disputes
Anarchic legal system depends on efficient civil courts and common law
Civil courts are a state monopoly
Legislation crowds out bottom of market for adjudication
Informal processes could emerge
Standard of evidence may be lower, more subjective
Damages could be proportionate to amount of evidence
Judge Judy is the model for an anarchic society
Common law is less efficient, but legislation can’t be effectively enforced
Civil cases also have high standard of evidence
Everyone is presumed guilty, the end.

Links/Resources
The Tom Woods Show Episode 1542: Do you really Own Your Home?
Airbnb Neighborhood Support Team
AirDNA
Furnished Finder
Earth Wind & Fire – September

Episodes Mentioned
ana027: 11 Fears About Short Term Rentals | ASSUAGED!

 

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