Augusta's Oct. 23 zoning draft cuts the short-term rental rules the Oct. 14 version had. What changed, what the city has not said, and the Nov. 1 survey.
Augusta’s latest draft of its new zoning ordinance no longer contains the short-term rental rules that were in the version the Planning Commission reviewed last week.
The city posted the revised draft, dated Oct. 23, on its zoning rewrite page. The short-term rental section is now marked “Reserved,” with no text under it. Short-term rentals no longer appear in the draft’s table of where each use is allowed.
The city has not published an explanation for the change. It also has not posted the Planning Commission’s recommendation from its Oct. 21 hearing or a date for the Augusta Commission’s vote. Nothing in the rewrite is final.
What changed between the drafts
| Oct. 14 draft | Oct. 23 draft | |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term rental in the use table | Allowed with a permit in six districts | Not listed |
| Short-term rental section (sec. 4.4.45) | Permit, registration, guest limits, owner rules | “Reserved” |
| Definitions of short-term rental, owner, agent and lessee | Included | Removed |
| Parking rule of one space per bedroom | Included | Still included |
| Ban on renting a backyard cottage short term, unless expressly permitted | Included | Still included |
The Oct. 14 draft allowed short-term rentals only in agricultural land, the Neighborhood Center and Medical Mixed-Use districts, and three downtown subdistricts. It set rules for owners, including:
- a zoning compliance permit and city registration for each property
- payment of the hotel occupancy tax
- no more than two adults per bedroom and six unrelated people at a time
- an owner or agent able to respond within one hour of a complaint
- quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Our earlier story on those rules has the full detail.
What the new draft does not say
The Oct. 23 draft does not say how short-term rentals would be treated without their own section. Two general rules in it bear on any use the table leaves out:
- A use the table does not list is “expressly prohibited” in that district, under section 4.1.4.
- The planning director decides whether an unlisted use may operate in a district, and how, under section 4.1.3.
The draft does not say which of those would apply to short-term rentals, or whether separate rules are coming. A “Reserved” section in an ordinance is usually a placeholder for text to be added later, but the city has not said that is the plan here.
The current ordinance, the November 2019 version, has no short-term rental category. The closest use it defines is a “tourist house.”
Other changes in the revision
The Oct. 23 draft runs to 398 pages, against 424 in the Oct. 14 version. It also adds a Savannah River Corridor Protection Overlay section, which carries forward the state’s river corridor rules. The draft calls this a “key decision point,” noting the rules could work as a development standard instead of an overlay.
What it means for you
- If you rent your home during Masters week, there is no settled answer yet. The rules that would have covered you have been taken out of the draft, and nothing has replaced them.
- Have your say by Sunday, Nov. 1. The city’s zoning survey closes that day.
- Ask Planning and Development at 535 Telfair St., Suite 300, or call 706-821-1796.
- Read our overview of the zoning rewrite and our building permits and zoning guide.
We will update this story when the city explains the change or sets a date for the Augusta Commission’s vote.
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