GARFIELD RIDGE — Tourists who want to use Airbnb or other home-sharing services to visit the Southwest Side of the city would be out of luck under a measure that won the endorsement Thursday of a City Council committee.
Ald. Marty Quinn, who represents the 13th Ward — where 90 percent of the residents live in single-family homes — moved to ban short-term rentals in parts of West Lawn, Ashburn and Garfield Ridge.
Under new regulations that went into effect earlier this year, short-term rentals can be banned in each precinct of the city if more than 25 percent of residents sign a petition within 90 days demanding that the practice be outlawed.
In four of the 48 precincts in Quinn's 13th Ward, residents did just that — with the number of signatures "far exceeding the required threshold," Quinn told the City Council's Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards, which endorsed the move.
The new rules, which are expected to be approved by the full City Council at its meeting on Wednesday, would make parts of West Lawn, Ashburn and Garfield Ridge the first neighborhoods to ban short-term rentals.
"Without this protection, anyone could turn their house into a hotel," Quinn said.
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