After about two years of discussion and debate, Birmingham City Council members on Thursday decided more talk was needed about rules to govern short-term rentals and put off a decision on the issue until May.

With several questions being raised, Councilor Darrell O’Quinn during the council’s committee of the whole meeting moved to carry the item over for city staff to address some missing elements. Councilor Brian Gunn asked that the item go to community development to address how STRs affect residential areas.

“How does this impact our housing strategy in the city of Birmingham?” Gunn asked.

Hunter Williams expressed concern that transferring the matter to community development would prolong the process, since it would then have to go back to the committee of the whole before going to the full council. “We all have opinions about this. I’d like the whole council to make a collective decision,” he said.

Council President Wardine Alexander said short-term rentals have been debated for quite a while “because we want to get it right. The nine of us all realize our responsibility is to regulate and manage this activity in a way that’s going to bring a balance to the quality of life as well as any economic benefit we can find in this.”

A proposal made late last year for regulating short-term rentals would ban them in single-family residential neighborhoods, limit them in other zones and require a responsible party to be located within 10 miles of the property.

Homeowners have raised concerns about the proliferation of short-term rentals in some neighborhoods and the potential for harm to property values and increasing crime.

During nearly two hours of discussion Thursday, council members brought up many of those concerns.

Gunn pointed out that some previously vacant structures have been revitalized for short-term rentals, which he said has improved some areas. He added that 65% of STRs are in single-family districts.

“That’s more than 700 homes that are in the short-term rental database,” Gunn said.

Kimberly D. Speorl, zoning administrator for the Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, said some operators of short-term rentals have said they’ve revitalized their block and their neighborhood. That said, there is no conclusive evidence.

“We don’t have specific data to track permitting … because when you apply for a building permit, you don’t necessarily have to put that you’re doing renovations for a short-term rental,” she said.

Speorl said that as of August 2025, there were 1,134 short-term rentals in the city. She said there were 4.04 million visitors to Jefferson County in 2024 with a total economic impact of $2.57 billion.

The zoning administrator said estimates indicate that Airbnb helped generate more than $90 million to the metro area’s economy.

But Councilor Josh Vasa said there are people in his district who feel as though they live on an island surrounded by short-term rentals.

“I know a lot of folks in the City of Birmingham who have been living here (who) enjoy it because of the community, enjoy it because of the neighbors,” Vasa said. “The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of public safety issues and other issues that make people feel unsafe (around short-term rentals). We’ve had folks in District 3, in my neighborhood, move out from the city of Birmingham because of short-term rentals. I’m not saying there aren’t any positives. I think there are. But the greatest concern that we all share as councilors … is the enforcement piece.”

O’Quinn said after the meeting that he would have liked for regulations on short-term rentals to have been in place years ago.

“That’s not the case, so we are playing some catch up here,” he said. “One of the advantages of being late to the game is that you get the benefit of seeing what others are doing right and what they’ve done wrong. At the very least, we’re in a position of being able to consult with other municipalities around the country and say what’s working and what’s not. We feel confident that everyone on the council realizes that there’s a benefit to regulating this activity and wants to get to a point where we have some handle on what’s going on.

“But again, the struggle is figuring out what’s overreach and just enough in terms of the zoning,” O’Quinn said. “Are there places where we want to not allow them? Or do we want to kind of move forward as we are now, where they’re allowed pretty much anywhere?”

Several cities in the metro area have prohibited short-term rentals.

“A bunch of municipalities around the area have passed ordinances prohibiting STRs, yet if you go on the online listings, you can find plenty of STR listings in those municipalities,” O’Quinn said. “There (are) places that say they’re regulating them but not really.”