PEORIA, Ill. – Properties in Peoria that have been operating as short-term rentals without a special use permit, and those having been handed other sanctions in the recent past, are temporarily safe.
The Peoria City Council Tuesday night approved a 90-day moratorium on enforcement of the city’s short-term rentals, after what some council members say was multiple points of confusion.
“I was one of those people that got a fine. As soon as I got that, I contacted my attorney to have him look into it,” said resident Bill Kwan, who was making a home a short-term rental while he was waiting for it to sell, just so he could help show people how good Peoria is. “Before we could even have the date which, I believe was [Tuesday, November 2] for the [administrative] hearing, I got a second penalty from the city — a fine for $6,000 — without being able to address the first one.”
The seven to three vote came after a lengthy discussion, centering in part around warnings property owners were given that either may not have been received or sent to the wrong place, or owners were given further sanctions before a court date on the first sanctions could be held.
“We can have discussions around this horseshoe, without doing what we ask the smallest kids not to do: bullying each other, and bullying our citizens,” said At-Large Council Member Sid Ruckriegel.
Ruckriegel said most of the City Council should have seen these problems coming, when the original ordinance on so-called “AirBNB’s” was passed to begin with.
The 90-day moratorium would end February first. It came at the request of At-Large Council Member Zachary Oyler.
