In a win for short-term rental operators in Lafayette, the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment upheld a decision greenlighting Airbnbs and other short-term rentals Thursday.
The Lafayette Development Code does not directly address short-term rental operations in single family-zoned areas, so the board’s decision leaves them up to the interpretation of Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s Development and Planning Director Mary Sliman.
Sliman, who took over as director in May 2020, has allowed Airbnbs and other short-term rentals to operate in single-family residential zones because they are not explicitly prohibited in those areas by the development code.
The board voted Thursday not to grant an appeal of Sliman’s determination about short-term rentals in the city, of which there are about 300, after a group of neighbors of one particular rental on Poinsetta Street sought to outlaw short-term rentals in single-family areas citywide in a dispute that stemmed from complaints a