Since the Spring of 2025, the City of New Orleans has been engaged in the process of reviewing its policies concerning commercial short term rentals. At the request of the City Council, the City Planning Commission commissioned a private firm, Desire Line, to conduct a comprehensive review and study of the City’s regulations concerning commercial short term rentals.
Desire Line’s Transient Lodging Study was produced in October 2025, and was received by the City Planning Commission on October 28, 2025. After revisions, the Study was presented to the City Planning Commission at a public hearing on December 9, 2025, at which time public comments from scores of interested citizens were received.
The original Transient Lodging Study >
Both the City Planning Commission staff and Desire Line reviewed various aspects of the Study in light of the comments that were received at the December 9 hearing. Desire Line revised the Study and the City Planning Commission staff made additional specific recommendations.
City Planning Commission’s recommendations >
January City Planning Commission Public Hearing
On January 27, 2026, the City Planning Commission held an additional public hearing to receive public input on the revisions to the Study. Over 60 members of the public attended, many of whom made comments on the record before the Commission.
The range of comments at the January 27 hearing was very broad. Some speakers urged the elimination of the category “Commercial Short Term Rentals” entirely and suggested instead that there should be only one designated category that includes all short term rentals. A great deal of emphasis was placed on enforcement, which to-date has been lax. Citizens urged that whatever the final regulations are, their meaning will be drastically reduced unless they are adequately enforced.
Much of the discussion at the January 27 public hearing focused on certain key issues:
Whether the current prohibition against both commercial and residential short term rentals in the Garden District should be continued. The Commission voted to recommend to the City Council that it should be continued.
Whether hotels should be permitted in the CBD-5 zoning district. The City Planning Commission voted to recommend to keep the existing rule that hotels constitute “conditional uses” in the CBD-5 zoning district, rather than “permitted uses.”
Whether “small” commercial STRs should be permitted in the VCE-1 zoning district. The Commission voted to recommend that small commercial STRs be allowed as a permitted use in the VCE-1 district, but not “medium” commercial STRs.
Whether properties where current commercial short term rentals are permitted should be “grandfathered” (i.e. considered to be legal non-conforming uses) and thus allowed to continue that use, even if it is no longer permitted under new regulations to be established by the City Council. For future commercial short term rentals under the new regulations, the Commission voted to recommend that commercial short term rentals be granted a license only, and not a vested property right, so that they would be ineligible to be “grandfathered” under any future regulations.
With respect to properties that are currently legally operating as commercial short term rentals, their status as a legal non-conforming use under any new regulations is a legal question to be decided in the courts. The Commission, however, voted to recommend to the City Council that the City’s legal staff study the question and try, to the maximum possible extent, to achieve the result that existing legal commercial short term rentals should not be “grandfathered” under any new regulations.
What’s Next
The matter now goes before the City Council. The City Council has the final authority to make the changes to the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance that will establish the new rules for commercial short term rentals.
Robert Steeg is a current Commissioner of the City Planning Commission and Former Chair.