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Attorney Niles Illich’s sense of security in his family’s quiet northwest Dallas neighborhood was shattered last summer during a routine walk with his 8-year-old daughter.
Stopping to chat with a retiree in her front yard, Illich heard of growing concern among residents about what was happening four doors down from her own home.
For weeks, mostly while Illich and others were at work, eight or more cars were parked in front of 12507 High Meadow Drive at any one time. A constant stream of guys came in and out.
In the background of photos on a raunchy advertising website, identical details to the High Meadow house were found.
Illich quickly hired a private detective who proved what the lawyer already knew: a brothel operated in short-term rentals.
“You invest in a house, you invest in a city, with the hope that you can safely raise your family,” he told me. “Someone can sell a house and it becomes a short-term rental and you really lose all of that.”
He and his wife feel stripped of what they believed in when they bought their home seven years ago: the confidence that they had found a comfortable, safe neighborhood where they could raise their daughter.
For more than two years — amid the Dallas City Council’s one step forward and two step back failure to take action — I wrote about the problems associated with properties advertised on online platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO.
The High Meadow brothel is a new and ugly twist.
Police say a prostitution operation used him for weeks before he moved in August to a short-term rental property in Plano.
But thanks to Illich and a few other neighbors, this ring is bankrupt.
Officers from Dallas and Plano stormed the second house, in the 2900 block of Las Palmas Lane, on September 23. Like the High Meadow location, the Plano home is in a charming, middle-income neighborhood and is easily accessible to major highways.
Dallas police told me Thursday that after further investigation into Operation High Meadow and Las Palmas, they made 23 additional arrests for solicitation of prostitution, a felony in state prison. Dallas officers also seized three firearms and more than $6,000 in cash.
Cases are filed with the Collin County District Attorney’s Office.
The Bungalow, as the operation called itself, could still bounce from one short-term rental to the next without Illich.
He first shared his private investigator report in late August with his District 13 City Council member, Gay Donnell Willis, who put him in touch with the Dallas Police Department’s Vice Unit.
Days later, Illich shared her story with a Dallas City Plan Commission committee that was considering how best to move forward with short-term rental regulations.
Advertised on websites with names such as “Rubmd” and with explicit photos and descriptions that made it clear what The Bungalow was selling, the operation was aimed particularly at men traveling in and out of DFW International Airport.
Among the prohibitions listed for potential customers: No choking, slapping or spitting.
Dallas Police Maj. Devon Palk told me that none of the women working in the homes were being held against their will and no minors were involved.
The activities of the two short-term rentals represent a new tactic for evading law enforcement, Palk said.
“In this case, they may have been in a place that traditionally isn’t considered for sex trafficking, as opposed to, say, motels,” Palk said.
Contrary to what you find in quality hotels, there is no receptionist or security to monitor the comings and goings.
Although Operation High Meadow is the only one Palk is aware of that involves a short-term rental in Dallas, he said, “It’s an evolution of criminal tactics to be able to fly under the radar.”
Unless you’re one of the few who heard Illich’s testimony before the planning commission’s zoning ordinance advisory committee, it’s likely that word of a brothel in a short-term rental term in Dallas is new information.
However, the Plano bust was a rallying cry for residents of that city who want short-term rentals banned in single-family neighborhoods.
City of Plano employees have spent the past few months reviewing what other local municipalities have done with short-term rentals and how they have implemented this work. The Plano City Council will hear the final findings at its Monday evening meeting.
In contrast, Dallas City Hall and our own city council seem willing to drag this issue out until after the May election.
More than six weeks after the City Plan Commission approved a recommendation that would ban short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods, the matter appears to be referred – again – to the council’s quality of life committee.
This committee briefing will not take place until February at the earliest.
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It’s a baffling next step given council members sent the controversy to the plan commission in June with a mandate that they wanted to fast-track a final decision as quickly as possible.
It’s no wonder so many residents who live next to inconvenient short-term rentals tell me they’ve lost hope that the city will ever act.
As I explained in previous columns, it’s a difficult question with differing views on how to move forward.
Some council members believe allowing short-term rentals to operate with effective regulation across the city is the answer. Others support banning single-family neighborhoods and enforcement measures that ensure accountability.
Based on my several years of reporting, when it comes to which property rights should carry the most weight, I’m on the side of neighbors who actually live in the neighborhood — as opposed to short-term rental landlords.
Regardless of where city council members stand in the debate, they owe it to their constituents to vote — and to take political pressure if those they represent don’t agree with the decision.
How you feel about short-term rentals, which thousands do business across Dallas, probably depends on if one operates on your block.
As Illich told me, he was “essentially neutral” towards them until he saw evidence that a brothel had taken up residence on his street. In fact, her sister operates one in the Hill Country which has been a good investment for her.
Now he supports their exit from single-family neighborhoods and fears what happened on High Meadow Drive could happen again anywhere in Dallas.
“It’s nothing unique to my neighborhood or my street,” he said. “When you have a brothel down the street and you have an 8-year-old child, that changes everything.”
While the alleged brothel is gone, the short-term rental in his neighborhood continues to advertise on the VRBO platform and welcome guests, some of whom have hosted rowdy parties in recent months.
“You never know who the next person is that will be in that short-term rental,” Illich said. “Who was it last night?” There was someone there – probably a lovely person, but I have no idea.
Like so many short-term rentals operating across Dallas, property records show that the High Meadow property is owned by an investment company, this one in Newport Beach, California. It should be noted that a 2022 report showed that 43% of homes sold in Dallas County the previous year went to investors.
Let me repeat it. Dallas doesn’t have a shortage of hotels, there is a shortage of accommodations. With so many residences converted into lucrative short-term rentals, long-term renters and even potential homeowners are less likely to find affordable housing.
City Council has spent more than three years – multiple task force and committee meetings, public hearings, closed briefings and, most recently, a six-month process with the city map – to find a way forward.
Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature will likely revisit bills that would prevent local governments from regulating the location of short-term rental properties.
Dallas shouldn’t be intimidated by potential roadblocks put up by Austin or the courts to do what’s right for its residents. Nor should he fall back on excuses that the registration ordinance for short-term rentals operating outside of single-family neighborhoods needs more work.
Short-term rentals will be among the hottest campaign topics this spring as these properties affect voters where they live.
If the incumbents think that dwelling on acknowledging their position on this issue will win out, they are mistaken.
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