Berea Close to Passing First Short-Term Rental Law, Replacing Rental-Permit Code

Berea City Council gave its April 20 regular meeting over, in part, to two related pieces of housing-regulation legislation on third reading — the final step before passage.

Ordinance 3-1 enacts a brand-new Chapter 587 of the city code specifically regulating 'the business of short-term residential rentals properties' — the first purpose-built short-term rental framework in Berea's code. Short-term rentals are the Airbnb/Vrbo category of whole-house and partial-home rentals of fewer than 30 days, and they've become a growing pressure point in Northeast Ohio suburbs that don't already regulate them.

Alongside it, Ordinance 3-2 repeals and replaces Chapter 1331 of the code, which governs residential rental property permits more broadly — the permit system every landlord in Berea operates under. The 3-2 ordinance carries an emergency declaration, meaning it takes effect immediately on passage rather than the usual 30-day wait.

Both ordinances are companion measures: the new Chapter 587 sets rules for short-term rentals specifically, while the refreshed Chapter 1331 covers the broader rental-permit framework the two regimes together will live within.

Also on the Berea agenda: a resolution asking the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer to certify a 4.1-mill tax renewal levy for the ballot (declared an emergency), and a second reading of the ordinance that would name the unnamed roadway fronting Mucklo Park, the Dave Tressel Memorial Pool, and Coe Lake Park 'Veterans Parkway.'