In a recent move, New Orleans City Planning Commission has put a halt to processing Non-Commercial Short-Term Rental (NSTR) Special Exception applications, a change that will impact numerous pending cases in the city. The discontinuation, effective immediately, follows a series of regulatory changes that have effectively eliminated the framework for Special Exceptions under city law, as reported by the City of New Orleans.
Last year on September 5, the New Orleans City Council set this new course with Motion No. M-24-493, creating an Interim Zoning District (IZD) that barred issuing new NSTR Special Exceptions post-September 19, 2024. Subsequent applications seemed to have a brief reprieve, as those received before the cut-off were still up for consideration under Section 21.8.C.18.r of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, leaving 373 applications in the CPC queue, according to the City of New Orleans announcement. However, the narrative took a turn on March 27, when Ordinance No. 30311 was adopted, excising the relevant Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance section and, with it, the Special Exceptions provision…