Surely no one could have known

Apparently there was a massive run on short term rental permits just before the new rules went into effect this week. Anyone who got in under the wire is now effectively grandfathered in by right.

The final number of legal rentals could end up being significantly higher by the end of the process, however.

There’s a backlog of more than 1,000 applications that have yet to be processed, and unbuilt projects that could contain another 1,000 commercial units are still on the drawing boards and could come online years down the road.

In both cases, “they were legally allowed (at the time they applied) and will continue to be legal,” said Zach Smith, director of the Department of Safety and Permits.

The imminent approach of the new rules has brought a surge in applications. The city has issued nearly 620 licenses to residential properties since the beginning of September, and nearly 390 more applications are waiting to be reviewed.

This is, of course, exactly what affordable housing advocates said was going to happen if the city did not act to freeze the granting of new permits between the time new rules were passed and the date they went into effect. In fact this is what they chanted out loud in the city council chambers as members were debating the ordinances.  But somehow nobody could have predicted....

The only fair conclusion to draw is this is what the mayor and council wanted all along.  And now they've got what they wanted. Brand new STR hotels are coming soon to Canal Street, and to the former Charity Hospital, and to Mid City along the Lafitte Greenway. The recently passed 2020 city budget is depending on short term rentals to proliferate, in fact, in order to gain revenue via a new tax approved by voters in November.   Your elected leadership has ignored your clear objections and sold you out entirely.  Remember that next time you go to ask them for anything. They hear you just fine. But you aren't important enough to be listened to.