Tell me that it's evolution

Home Away has a solution to the short term rental controversy.  It involves permitting more STR licenses than what currently exist.

Also included in the HomeAway proposal is a citywide cap on short-term rental licenses set at 6,000, and a removal of the ban on short-term rentals in the French Quarter. There are an estimated 4,300 short-term rental properties in the city, according to a recent study from the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative.

This probably isn't going to be the last set of industry prepared regulations we see before the current cycle of debate concludes. The City Planning Commission is due to release a study next month. After that, we'll start to see whose proposals get absorbed into the ordinance. The STR companies like Home Away, Airbnb, etc. and their lobbying groups know that if they flood the zone with documents like this, they're likely to get more of what they want "balanced" into the "solutions" our political leadership is always looking to land on. That's what they mean when they talk about "evolving" the conversation.

"We need to evolve away from a conversation around banning," HomeAway spokesman Philip Minardi said, "and evolve toward addressing the concerns of the community, but also the need to have a responsible inventory of traditional whole-home vacation rentals."

Someone should write an ordinance that calls for banning STRs outright.  You know, just to try and evolve things back the other way a little.