BATON ROUGE - Short-term rentals in the capital area will now be fully regulated as per Wednesday's Metro Council vote, but one of the amendments was removed, frustrating some neighborhood representatives. 

The use of rental systems, such as Airbnb, has been widely debated for years. There has allegedly been little to no regulation in the use of rentals, but council members hope the new ordinance requiring permits will assuage concerns. 

The vote, which passed unanimously in the Metro Council, requires rental property owners to obtain a permit that would allow them to continue running their businesses. The permit would ensure that the property owner is following rules, paying taxes, and is generally held accountable for renters. 

Owners could lose their ability to rent, for example, if they receive three violations within a year-long period.

However, one of the new stipulations was axed from the ordinance in Wednesday's vote. 

While rental properties where the homeowner would be present during the renter's stay, whole-home rentals where the property owner lives off-site would have been subject to conditional permits, where neighbors would have been allowed to weigh in on whether the homeowner could receive a rental permit.

However, the use of conditional permits, an item that was added to the ordinance originally to garner support from neighborhood representatives, was removed as a requirement, something that Ed Lagucki, president of the Federation of Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations, told The Advocate was a mistake.

A vote to further defer the ordinance from Oct. 19 until Dec. 7 failed in the council.