Little Rock, AR Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Sec. 36-601(a)(1) makes STR-1 a land use allowed only where the planning commission has granted a special use permit under Sec. ties that permit to residency: the owner must permanently reside at the property, or permanently reside within one thousand five hundred feet of it, and be a natural person or persons, not a corporation, LLC or trust. Sec. 36-600 defines owner-occupied as the owner permanently residing in the short-term rental itself or in the principal residential unit associated with it on the same tax parcel.

Sec. 36-601(a)(2) then sets the proof: owner-occupied status must be confirmed by at least two documents demonstrating primary residence, and the documented address must match the deed as recorded with the Pulaski County clerk's office. Acceptable documents are an Arkansas driver's license, a State of Arkansas ID card, a Pulaski County voter registration card, an IRS W-2 form, a utility bill dated within sixty days, or a bank statement dated within sixty days. Once the planning commission approves the special use permit on that basis, the owner must still submit a separate business license application, renewed annually, carrying an inspection fee of one hundred dollars per bedroom up to a five-hundred-dollar maximum, waived the first year for a rehabilitated unsafe or vacant structure.

A property owner who cannot meet the residency test has no STR-1 option at all and must instead seek a planned zoning district as a non-owner-occupied STR-2.