FBFK’s Robert Miklos Shares His Take on the Short-Term Rental Ban with the Dallas Business Journal 

In a June 22 article penned by the Dallas Business Journal’s Pladamie Ifasso & Jeff Schnick titled Dallas’ ban on short-term rentals? Let the legal party begin, FBFK’s deeply experienced Land Use Law shareholder/attorney Robert Miklos offered his input on the long battle that is likely to come and the implications of the ban. According to the article, “Enforcement of the new rules will start in December, if they can even be implemented at all.”

 

 

“Let’s say I was operating a gas station, and the City of Dallas changed the zoning on the property,” Miklos said. “All of a sudden, the new zoning said you can’t operate a gas station as a use there. What happens is that use becomes non-conforming. … In Dallas, non-conforming uses are allowed to continue to operate until their non-conformity is terminated… here are thousands of homes and businesses throughout Dallas that, if they were established today, wouldn’t be allowed. But because they were established while the zoning allowed their use, they continue to operate.”

 

 

The article also adds that “Another legal hurdle the city has is the Texas legislature. Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2127 last week, and the bill bars cities and counties from passing regulations and overturns existing ones that go further than state law in broad areas such as labor, finance and agriculture.”

 

 

To which Miklos weighed in by saying: “There are other questions: What is the distinction that I can claim as a legislator to say one (house) should be regulated and one (house) should not be?”…then added “Just predicting, a lot of neighborhood activists believe this issue is solved,” he added. “When the city struggles significantly to enforce this, the neighborhoods are going to be very frustrated. There’s going to be an incredible amount of frustration.”