Blue Hill, NE Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

Municipal Code § 5-704, part of the short-term rental licensing article added by Ordinance No. 746 (July 8, 2025), sets out four separate grounds on which the city may revoke or deny a short-term rental license. The first, § 5-704(A), targets repeat neighborhood disruption: the license can be revoked if the licensed premises is the subject of three or more verified complaints of noise or other disturbance in the course of a calendar year. The remaining grounds in the same section cover a unit that no longer satisfies the minimum health and safety requirements of § 5-703(B), a unit otherwise determined uninhabitable, and an applicant's failure to pay the $50 annual license fee.

Because § 5-704(A) counts complaints per calendar year rather than per license term, a run of verified disturbance complaints against a licensed short-term rental resets each January even if the underlying license itself runs on its own one-year cycle from issuance. The ordinance does not spell out who verifies a complaint or the appeal process for a revoked license, but § 5-703 places licensing administration with the city clerk, and a general Chapter 5 violation is separately punishable under § 5-801(A) by a fine up to $500, with a new violation deemed committed every 24 hours the noncompliance continues.

Short-term rental licenses under this chapter are nontransferable and must be renewed annually, so a revoked operator cannot simply transfer the unit's license to continue operating; a new application, and a fresh compliance record, would be required.