NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – After more than two years of heated debate and demonstrations, a short term-rental ordinance could be voted on Thursday. The city council meeting plans to take up the proposal around 11:30 AM. This measure was drafted by the council back in October, and some changes have been made, including:

· Property owners must have a permit and can only do whole home rentals 90 days a year
· If they live in a double, residents can rent out the other half, with a permit. The 90 day limit would not apply in this case.

The plan does allow residents to rent out spare bedrooms at anytime. It also calls for sites like AirBNB to give the city info on renters and collect taxes on behalf of the city to help fund enforcement.

Short-term rental supporters told WGNO they’re satisfied with the ordinance, but opponents told me they still want some changes to be made.

“We hope it will pass because if it goes forward this will mark the industry standard, not only for the United States, but worldwide — for platform sharing, for responsible home sharing, for embracing taxable and permeable revenue. And we want to open our homes in our city to visitors who have a visitor choice and preference in choosing not to stay in a traditional hotel, ” said Eric Bay, President of the Alliance of Neighborhood Prosperity.

“The ordinance, we believe, has a couple of holes that can be easily fixed. We hope that the council votes today to include important amendments that will make the ordinance truly beneficial to really help the citizens of New Orleans and protect the neighborhoods of New Orleans,” said Meg Lousteau, Executive Director of VCPORA (Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents, and Associates)

Stick with wgno on-air and online for the latest on this developing situation.