Update from Reader on Illegal AirBnB

A reader has also been curious about the illegal AirBnB that I profiled yesterday and contacted the Montgomery County office of the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation asking that the property be reclassified as commercial. (Note: this is a state, not a county office.) Here is the reply they received:

We have researched and found that the property is zoned R-60 for residential use and does not have any type of special use agreement with the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services, Zoning and Site Plan Division .  Therefore we will not reclassify the account as commercial property.  Our records also show that the property is not owner occupied, so there is no further action to be taken by the State of Maryland. 

The owner doesn’t live there but continues to run a commercial youth hostel out of the house. The lack of commercial classification on the property seems woefully unfair to hotels engaged in the same business–renting out spaces in non-owner occupied structures. It is also quite different from an owner renting out a room or two in their own home, as AirBnB was originally conceived and presented.

In any case, it has been over a year since a county resident made a complaint about this illegal ADU and it’s still going strong. The use is not remotely consistent with the zoning code.

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