Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved a change to temporarily remove the limit on how many short-term rental units — such as AirBnBs — property owners may hold.
The change, which city staff members said will help ensure there are enough accommodations for thousands of visitors anticipated to come to town for the World Cup, will go into effect May 25. Commissioners asked staff to start the process to add to city codes that the change will sunset July 26 and to increase penalties for violations.
City code currently limits any licensee to a maximum of three short-term rental licenses within city limits. The amendment to property codes commissioners approved Tuesday will remove that cap for the duration of the tournament.
Six World Cup matches are slated for Kansas City between June 16 and July 11, and the impacts are expected to reach Lawrence and beyond. That’s especially true if Lawrence ends up hosting an international team’s base camp, which we should know by the end of this month.
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In addition, there’s a chance that a team based in Lawrence could be eliminated in an early round of the tournament, so the largest impact would only last for a week or two. But Kansas City will also host a quarterfinal game, so there could be fans of another team coming to the area for that game.
City Commissioner Kristine Polian asked that any penalties for violating the code be steeper than usual.
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“If we’re going to allow people to come in and disrupt a neighborhood very quickly, very temporarily, I want to make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak, for the city,” she said.
Commissioner Amber Sellers said she was concerned about short-term rental units that are already operating without being licensed.
“We know we have some now. So what can we put in place to give it (the ordinance) teeth?” she said, suggesting people could be assessed fines and potentially lose the ability to license short-term rentals with the city.
Some members of the public spoke against the changes, citing concerns about limiting the housing market for people who live in Lawrence. Resident Chris Flowers asked whether city staff members had studied the potential impact for renters; staff did not present any data on that.
Mayor Brad Finkeldei said he’d spoken with some landlords who were asking tenants whether they planned to be in Lawrence for the summer or if they plan to return to their hometowns, then come back in August for the fall semester.
Polian said she loved the idea of people being able to capitalize on empty space, and she wasn’t “overly concerned” about jeopardizing long-term rentals because thousands of students do leave town for the summer. She said she wanted to have conversations about safety and ensuring people’s lives aren’t disrupted.
“I am in favor of this, as long as we’re controlling it and it’s a benefit to the community,” she said.
Assistant City Manager Brandon McGuire said from a government perspective, the event won’t necessarily be a windfall. He said he wanted to temper expectations for the impact to government revenue, though he hopes local businesses can benefit greatly.
“These types of events are major consumers of public services, and so we are starting first with more of a ‘continuity of operations’ approach,” he said. “How do we make sure that businesses can continue functioning and people in our community; our community members can continue going about their daily lives.”
Jeff Crick, director of planning and development services, said the city is also looking to ensure there are enough accommodations for additional first responders and emergency workers who might be coming in from western Kansas.
Rental units must be inspected to be licensed under city code. Crick said code inspections to ensure that units are safe are the same for long-term rentals — multimonth leases — as they are for short-term rentals, so any inspections completed for the temporary period would fulfill both purposes.
Commissioners voted on three motions, and all three passed unanimously. First, they approved a change to lift the cap on the number of short-term rentals a property owner can hold.
Second, they moved to allow short-term rentals in non-owner-occupied short-term rentals in R-1 and R-2 zoning — the less dense districts in the city, where that use is currently not permitted.
Finally, they voted to ask city staff members to start working on another code amendment to sunset the temporary changes on July 26, and to bring back language related to fines and penalties related to short-term rental code violations.
The city has already increased the transient guest tax rate, a sales tax that applies to hotel room and short-term rental stays, to 8% from 6%, which is expected to bring in approximately $940,000 in increased revenue in 2026, according to city staff.
Code Official Brian Jimenez said code compliance often works on a “reaction basis,” so enforcement is done based on reports from the public.
People can make complaints about short-term rental issues via See Click Fix at seeclickfix.com/lawrence. They can also email rentallicensing@lawrenceks.gov or call the planning department at 785-832-7700. The unified command for the World Cup will give a more in-depth presentation to the commission about ongoing preparations. That’s slated for the Tuesday, Jan. 20 meeting.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
More coverage: World Cup 2026
Lawrence City Commission lifts cap on short-term rentals for duration of World Cup
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