A new study of the Metro Codes department paints the agency as understaffed and overwhelmed by the challenge of monitoring the huge influx of short-term rental properties in Nashville.
And it describes the system of responding to citizen complaints — about uncut grass, garbage in alleyways, and unsafe buildings — as “skewed more toward protecting the rights of property owners against unjustified complaints than it is toward providing relief to neighbors.”
Those are among findings by consultants hired to probe Metro Codes, which is charged with inspecting and permitting construction, watching over Airbnb-style rentals and responding to property standards complaints.
The report recommends that Metro Codes:
- fill several lingering staff vacancies;
- add seven additional positions, including a Spanish-speaking staffer;
- dedicate 20 percent of work time to proactive inspections of properties, and;
- buy software to monitor short-term rental properties to issue fines and track the taxes owed.
“While the population … has grown rapidly, staffing has not kept pace,” read the study. “Worse, authorized positions have been vacant in both Property Standards as well as Codes & Building Safety.”
When it came to investigating about 18,000 property complaints in 2015, fewer than 200 cases went to court and a subset of those led to sanctions, prompting consultants to suggest several changes to add teeth to enforcement.
The study (
viewable in its entirety here) follows
concerns raised by residents and members of the Metro Council, who earlier this year offered to fund more Metro Codes positions, only to be told that they weren’t necessary.
Staff vacancies have been present for years, but the workload has increased since 2010 — the number of permits issued is up 16 percent, and the advent of short-term rental properties has added an entirely new duty to the agency.
In a statement, Mayor Megan Barry says the department will seek funding to add staff and to purchase new software to monitor short-term rental properties — a software that the consultants say could handle the work of a half-dozen staffers and bring in as much as $900,000 in
additional tax revenues each year.
“Rules and regulations are only effective if you have consistent enforcement,” Barry said.
(
Read all ongoing coverage of Airbnb and short-term rentals here.)
The mayor also announced that the same consultants will next take on a review of the permitting process in Metro Public Works as it relates to granting sidewalk and street closures, which has been the subject of
several Metro Council discussions and ordinance changes.
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