South West Illinois News

City of Waterloo Ordinance Committee met Feb. 3.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Members in attendance

Mayor Stan Darter

Alderman Kyle Buettner

Alderman Joel Vogt

Alderman Matt Buettner

Alderman Jim Hopkins

Alderman Jim Trantham

Alderperson Tina Charron

Alderman Gary Most

Alderman Russ Row

Michelle Childers

Sarah Craig

Director of Public Works JR Landeck

Assistant Director of Public Works Nathan Krebel

Meeting called to order at 7pm

1. Petitions by Citizens on Non-Agenda Items – None

2. Approval of the 12-16-24 Ordinance Cmte Mtg Minutes – Alderman Gary Most made a motion to approve the minutes. Alderman Russ Row seconded the motion. All members voted in favor of approval. Minutes approved.

3. Hotel/Motel Tax – At the meeting on 12-16-24 we had a conversation about Airbnb’s. The committee did research to see what other communities are doing. The committee found no consistency on what other local communities were doing to regulate or not regulate AirBnb’s and other similar short-term rentals. AirBnb and the other types of short-term rentals do a very good job of self-policing with customer reviews. Since the utilities do not change from renter to renter the City of Waterloo does not have a mechanism to know which units are being rented short term. The committee felt the right thing to do, would be to change the existing ordinance to have a minimum amount of units required to pay the hotel/motel tax. We will bring back an updated draft of the ordinance for approval at a future meeting.

4. Accessory Buildings – The Waterloo Zoning Board of Appeals has seen a handful of applications in the past few years that pertained to the size of an accessory building. Currently the City of Waterloo has a nine hundred square foot maximum. The ZBA has approved variances based on the size of the lot. The committee spoke about expanding the minimum based on the lot size. At the end of the conversation, it was concluded that we would keep the ordinance at nine hundred square feet and continue to let people appeal to the ZBA on a case-by-case basis.

5. Comments – Mayor Stan Darter made an announcement that considering the recent delay in utility bills by the Postal Service for this bill, all late fees will be waived for our residents. Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Alderman Gary Most, Alderman Russ Row seconded. Meeting was adjourned at 7:22pm

https://www.waterloo.il.us/wp-content/uploads/Ordinance-Cmte-Mtg-Minutes-02-03-25.pdf