Dade Place: Proposed Airbnb - 2302 Dunlavy St.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

And it's gone.

[Furious Jam]

On February 21, 2023, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, former Houston Texans player Darryl Sharpton, Jr. revealed that he intends on building 6 homes in the neighborhood of Montrose to serve as short-term rentals under his hospitality brand “The Sharpton”. Lots located at 2302 & 2308 Dunlavy Street are among the Montrose properties either directly or indirectly owned by him.

 

Mr. Sharpton recently filed a replat application with the City of Houston to subdivide 2308 Dunlavy Street under the name Bria Place and preparatory to building the first of his short-term rental homes. His proposed replat contains a representation that Mr. Sharpton will limit his homes to single-family residential activity, but that does not comport with his true plans as revealed in his interview.

 

The Sharpton houses will not be single-family residences but rather hotels both in fact and as a matter of law. Section 28-201 of the City of Houston’s Code of Ordinances defines a “Hotel” as being any “building or buildings in which the public may obtain transient sleeping accommodations” and expressly includes “tourist homes” and “houses” in the definition. That same section also defines a “Residence” as being a “permanent building or structure containing habitable rooms for nontransient occupancy”. The transient nature of short-term rentals makes The Sharpton’s true purpose incompatible with a single-family residential restriction.

 

However Mr. Sharpton cannot honestly ask the City to permit hotels on his Montrose properties because they all directly adjoin residential properties. Section 28-202(a)(3) of the City’s Code specifically states that the “property line of the tract on which a hotel... is situated may not abut at any point any other tract that is in whole or in part residential in character”. With regard to his Dunlavy lots in particular, they are situated in a block which is entirely residential and together they adjoin 11 single-family residential homes.

 

Those 11 homeowners have formed a coalition to oppose Mr. Sharpton’s duplicitous plan to seek residential replatting and permits for de facto hotels. We hereby call on like-minded citizens to join our opposition by registering to speak at the City’s next Planning Commission meeting, to be held on Thursday, March 30th at 2:30 p.m., where Mr. Sharpton’s replat will be considered. Attendance instructions are available at houstontx.gov/planning/Commissions/commiss_plan.html. Speakers must register prior to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29th.

 

This is an opportunity for all residents to push back against the short-term rentals that have blighted so many neighborhoods. Please stand with us, demand that the City enforce its own laws, and ensure that Mr. Sharpton doesn’t tackle your neighborhood next for his hotel brand.

[hindesky]

They already demolished the house at 2302 Dunlavy St.

[springcityparts]

Am I the only one that would welcome a hotel with open arms to Houston neighborhoods?

[Texasota]

Um, based on the information above I'm inclined to support this project. Dedicated short-term rental/ quasi-hotel options are super useful in Montrose.

[Texasota]

To be fair, I hate that they tore down the existing triplex/fourplex. Hopefully it will be replaced with something bigger at least, but now they have to add off-street parking somewhere.

[Furious Jam]

20 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Um, based on the information above I'm inclined to support this project. Dedicated short-term rental/ quasi-hotel options are super useful in Montrose.

These are entire houses he's building for short-term rentals - they are particularly infamous for house parties as opposed to apartments or condos.

Anyhow, I'm glad you like his plans because, guess what?, he's got more coming. Per an interview he gave to Houstonia a few weeks ago, he's already got 10 lots inside the loop and he also wants to "move out into more popular suburbs like Cypress, Katy, The Woodlands, and Sugar Land". I think you'll feel differently if one of these opens up next to you.

[Texasota]

I don't live in the suburbs. I don't live in Houston either currently but I lived on Stanford (among other places) for a while. 

I have immediate family and close friends in Montrose and Rice Military so I'm in town quite frequently. 

The details definitely matter here, but there basically are none in that article. 

Is your opposition to this specific person, or to the general idea of short term rentals?

[Furious Jam]

12 minutes ago, Texasota said:

I don't live in the suburbs. I don't live in Houston either currently but I lived on Stanford (among other places) for a while. 

I have immediate family and close friends in Montrose and Rice Military so I'm in town quite frequently. 

The details definitely matter here, but there basically are none in that article. 

Is your opposition to this specific person, or to the general idea of short term rentals?

I am opposed to entire houses being used as short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.  They are unlawful hotels and absolute nuisances:

Hurricanes Couldn’t Destroy Galveston’s Spirit. The Vacation Rental Boom Just Might.

‘Chronic party houses’ on Airbnb and Vrbo have become hot topics in Houston HOA disputes

Inside the Bro-tastic Party Mansions Upending a Historic Austin Community

Parties, dumped deer heads, dented fence: trials of living next to short-term rental

 

[Texasota]

People are afraid of house parties.

Perhaps Montrose really is dead.

[j.33]

Hmmm correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like they wont be entire houses. Instead, it sounds like it could be more like an apartment style with multiple units (1 or 2 beds) all being listed on AirBnB or VRBO separately. So its like a hotel, but not. Thus, the concern of these giant house parties wouldn't be a reality since no one would throw a huge party if they were in a unit the size of a Marriot hotel room. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Justin Welling

[hindesky]

Darryl Sharpton Jr. owns 2302 Dunlavy.
 

[hindesky]

Proposed plat for Bria Place.

[MrFubbles]

We either let him build his hotel or watch Montrose turn into a retirement community

Side note, I think it would be un-Houstonian of us to enforce niche zoning on this

[hindesky]

This was deferred for two weeks.

[strickn]

On 3/29/2023 at 10:56 AM, MrFubbles said:

We either let him build his hotel or watch Montrose turn into a retirement community

Side note, I think it would be un-Houstonian of us to enforce niche zoning on this

you think Houston’s existing laws have not been Houstonian, and yet you like how it has been and don’t want to watch it get bland.  Looks like a simple clear-cut case and not a niche enforcement.

[hindesky]

All the opposition to this was the fact that Sharpton had several conversations on local web sites and the Chronicle stating he wanted to have several short term rentals at this location and others. He attended the meeting and said these would be two houses that could be short term rentals or long term rentals. People are worried that these will become party houses that will create noise, parking problems and possible crime. The planning commission is obligated to pass the new plats but wanted Mr. Sharpton to get with the neighbors to assuage their concerns. The planning commission has no powers to not approve them simply based on the fact that they could be used for short term rentals.

[strickn]

If the point of building them is to build his hospitality brand, The Sharpton, then he has to offer that brand's services to the public, and if he does, then he is selling transient accommodation, which qualifies this as a hotel building.  They may not have preemptive power to deny him until he makes that product offering to the public, but as soon as he does, he is in violation of the citywide code.

[hindesky]

[X.R.]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:13 PM, strickn said:

If the point of building them is to build his hospitality brand, The Sharpton, then he has to offer that brand's services to the public, and if he does, then he is selling transient accommodation, which qualifies this as a hotel building.  They may not have preemptive power to deny him until he makes that product offering to the public, but as soon as he does, he is in violation of the citywide code.

I don't think this is a valid interpretation of city code in relation to that definition's application. You should look at the recent Texas Supreme Court decisions regarding HOA bylaws and Airbnbs, I think they would be instructive here. FYI, the Supreme Court is quite pro land use, even some terms that I thought would restrict the establishment of STR did not do so.  Also, if I was him, I would just pull all the Airbnb records for Montrose. Whats the city gonna do, shut it all down in Montrose? lulz. You know there are several homes in Montrose, near Westheimer and some by the Menil, that spend the majority of their time rented out on Airbnb, VRBO, etc. The problem with the ask is that if your interpretation is right, then its a massive change and it must be retroactive otherwise lawsuits are coming. I am genuinely surprised this is a path the neighborhood has decided to go down.

[strickn]

Yes, I see your point.  More of this, please.

But I'm not sure that city administration ever has to be as fast-moving as the bleeding edge of tech bro change, and if retroactivity is what you imply, the logical alternative would be to require city and county enforcement to keep abreast of every code violation and accept all accomplished violations unenforceable.  Seems like the police logic "well, I pulled you over, not the other speeders ahead of you, but they are not your concern now, nor mine," applies.

 

Since it's good for code to be slow moving and carefully exacting, officials don't have to justify or apologize for why a policy is in force now that has been in force the whole time while de facto not as consistently enforced as it would be now.  If the thorough enforcement couldn't start somewhere small and grow equally widespread, then lawsuits could arise whenever tech tries to broadly challenge code enforcement for awhile.

The deep bench of homestay listings as a side or main hustle, and their popular adoption as a business model inside of residential pockets, are both growing unprecedentedly widespread, necessitating the "all of a sudden" catching up to citing and fining them.

 

Public policy thoroughness can happen without a legal precedent problem if the local law de jure neither changed nor ever allowed it.     ...OTOH, the official local law is not the only way its legality can change; the Texas Supreme Court interpretations can apply, like you said.  So a specific instance can fly in the face of a general perspective.

Edited April 5, 2023 by strickn

[strickn]

On 4/3/2023 at 11:04 AM, X.R. said:

I don't think this is a valid interpretation of city code in relation to that definition's application. You should look at the recent Texas Supreme Court decisions regarding HOA bylaws and Airbnb
 

...Also, if I was him, I would just pull all the Airbnb records for Montrose. Whats the city gonna do, shut it all down in Montrose?

Just to be clear, I don't think it would be valid for a project to be prohibited a building permit or even Certificate of Occupancy on the basis of its land use.  But once built, it isn't equivalent to HOA rules at all.  The city can set per diem fines for code violation and then keep a spreadsheet of them, just as it can likewise levy its area hotel tax surcharges on STR stays, a matter in which STR listing tech companies have belatedly been forced to assist with compliance in many jurisdictions.  

[hindesky]

This plat was approved by the Planning Commission. It was deferred the first time but they can't stop it based on the state's and city rules.

[hindesky]

Proposed plat for another Darryl Sharpton (ex NFL player) property that he plans to turn in an airbnb.

[hindesky]

Approved by the Planning Commission.