When Pat Zeno lived on quaint Cornhill Street in downtown Annapolis, she could turn left out her door to see Maryland’s State House. If not for a slight bend in the road to her right, she could see City Dock.

“For a number of years when we lived on Cornhill, we had great neighbors,” Zeno recalled. “Some of the neighbors owned their properties and some of them rented. We would help each other out and get together for parties.”

By 2020, Zeno and her husband had retired. Annapolis was getting too expensive and they wanted to move closer to family. But something else was driving them away from the historic district they’d loved for the last 25 years: new homeowners renting out their properties on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.

“With the short-term rentals, there were no neighbors, there were just people renting on the weekends. It was a total change,” Zeno said. “It was sad. It was very sad for us.”

Such rentals proliferated after Zeno and her husband moved to Florida late in 2020, with short-term rental listings increasing 27.5% since 2021, an analysis by a company hired by the city found. Annapolis currently has 327 short-term rental licenses, according to the city. Most of them are in the downtown historic district.

The Annapolis alderman who represents that district, Democrat Harry Huntley, wants to prevent what’s happened on Cornhill Street, where there are hardly any owner-occupied houses, from spreading all over the city. This month, he introduced an ordinance that would limit future short-term rentals.

Huntley’s legislation would prohibit the city from issuing new short-term rental licenses on any block where they account for 10% of homes. The bill would grandfather existing short-term rentals, meaning people who have licenses on blocks that already exceed the threshold wouldn’t lose them.

“It’s not the existence of short-term rentals, it’s feeling like they’re taking over a neighborhood so much that we don’t have neighborhoods,” Huntley said. “Short-term rentals can be part of our community, but they can’t be all of our community or we won’t have a community.”

Democratic Mayor Gavin Buckley credited Huntley with “working to resolve the complex issue of housing,” which he said requires getting “the balance just right.”

“We need some short-term options, but we also need to ensure that rental housing remains available to working families — and that they are not priced out of the housing market,“ Buckley said in a statement. “In this area Annapolis is not alone — cities across the country are all working to strike a balance between short-term rental availability and housing availability.”

The proliferation of short-term rentals increases rent costs because it decreases the rental stock, said Jeremy Schwartz, chair of economics at Loyola’s Sellinger School of Business and Management. The phenomenon also can boost housing prices because “any time you have an option on any kind of asset, it should be worth more.”

But there are risks. Schwartz said property values in an area inundated with short-term rentals can drop because people may not want to buy in places without neighbors. Not to mention the possibility that too many rentals changes the fabric of a place.

Jurisdictions across the country, particularly those like Maryland’s capital that attract tourists, have been grappling with how to rein in the industry.

Garrett County, home to Deep Creek Lake, began requiring licenses for vacation rentals almost 20 years ago. In 2018, Baltimore mandated that new short-term rental owners use the residence as their primary home. Ocean City recently implemented a five-night minimum stay for rentals in some neighborhoods, a figure that will rise to a 31-night minimum in 2027.

Huntley’s bill is the latest attempt by Annapolis lawmakers to regulate the vacation rental industry, with the City Council having passed approximately 10 ordinances or resolutions about them since 2019. The proposed per block cap for short-term rentals mirrors one the city has for traditional bed and breakfasts.

In Annapolis, people who want to list their properties on the likes of Airbnb and Vrbo must get a $400 annual license and pay the same tax a hotel does. One person can only own one short-term rental and either the owner or a property manager has to live in the city.

Some involved in the business think those regulations are adequate.

On a recent morning, Annapolis native Megan Moore, 49, tidied up after visitors checked out of a pink-doored house on Charles Street — one of 22 short-term rentals she manages through her company, Moore Accommodations.

“I think there’s better time spent on the City Council than short-term rental legislation. I mean, I get what they’re saying, the whole city doesn’t need to be short-term rentals,” Moore said.

But, she added, “it’s kind of picking at something that doesn’t necessarily need to change unless there’s some major issue that I’m not aware of. But I haven’t heard any of these things other than, ‘We don’t like it on our street.’”

Over the years, Moore has hosted people from celebrities and globe-trotters to countless midshipmen’s families visiting for Naval Academy milestones. Short-term rentals, she said, are a boon for downtown businesses.

“I get to see their receipts,” Moore said. “I get to see their to-go containers. And they spend money.”

Annapolis officials said they don’t know how much money the city makes on short-term rentals. The city doesn’t track how many licenses it issued in years past.

Airbnb earned its average Annapolis host $18,500 in 2024, according to the company.

“Short-term rentals are an important part of Annapolis’ tourism economy, helping residents pay bills and stay in their homes as well as bringing visitor spending to local small businesses,” Kathy Burcher, Airbnb policy manager, said in a statement. “Limiting short-term rentals will only harm responsible residents while reducing options for families seeking affordable alternatives to hotels.”

About half the houses on Carl Larkin’s block on Prince George Street are short-term rentals. He worries about impacts on parking, safety, neighborhood upkeep and the fabric of their community.

Larkin, 86, and his wife June have lived in their home for 23 years. It’s less than a block from the William Paca House, once the home to one of Maryland’s signers of the Declaration of Independence.

“It was a pretty street, much prettier than it is now,” Larkin said. “The downtown area catered more towards the history of the town than it does now.”

As neighbors left, the Larkins started renting a room out with a short-term rental license. They’ve enjoyed meeting new people, but distinguish what they do from those who buy a house as an investment to rent out.

An amendment to Huntley’s bill would exempt owner-occupied short-term rentals, which account for just 8% of such rental properties in Annapolis, from the cap.

Larkin doesn’t think Huntley’s bill goes far enough.

“It’s better than nothing,” Larkin said. “I would like to see them be more restrictive and push short-term rentals to be more dispersed through the city rather than right here on this street.”