City set to enforce ordinance regulating short-term rentals

CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago officials are set to start enforcing a new ordinance that imposes tougher regulations on short-term rental companies like Airbnb after a federal judge's ruling in the city's favor.

On Tuesday, the judge denied a motion seeking to temporary block the regulations the Chicago City Council voted to approve last June.

With that, Bill McCaffrey of the city's law department tells the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2msQNA8 ) the city will begin "taking steps to enforce all aspects of its home-sharing ordinance."

The ordinance was sparked by concerns that short-term rental companies were turning residential buildings into virtual hotels and party hotspots. It puts a limit on the number of units in a building that can be rented out on the home-sharing sites and calls for an extra tax on home-sharing hosts.