Homeowners who rent out pools or yards for paid events through apps would be barred from doing so in residential Cranston, enforced by police, with a default fine of roughly $50 if the full council adopts the ordinance.
The Cranston Ordinance Committee voted Wednesday to advance an ordinance restricting short-term paid rentals of residential pools and outdoor spaces, according to the Cranston Public Works Committee and Ordinance Committee’s published meeting recording.
The measure, listed as an amendment to the city’s 2005 code of ordinances and titled “Short-Term Rentals of Outdoor Pools and Spaces,” is sponsored by Council President Daniel Wall and Frank J. Ritz Jr. of Ward 4. It passed the committee on a roll call in which every member present voted yes. The committee approved it with the explicit understanding that the ordinance’s chapter number may be corrected, or codified, at the next full council meeting — meaning the vote sends the policy forward but the citation attached to it is not yet settled.
What the ordinance is aimed at
Ritz told the committee the issue has been building for a few years. He said the city had “a good handle on the app that was being used now to handle this, but it doesn’t stop the next app from coming forward and creating these problems.” Existing city ordinances, he said, did not provide a strong, straightforward framework…