2026-09-05 · Alaska · Compliance

Anchorage has legalized short-term rentals in all residential zoning districts and now requires every operator to register with the city. The ordinance says nothing at all about covenants, CC&Rs, homeowners associations or deed restrictions — a full-text reading turns up zero references to any of them.

That silence is the story. The Municipality has changed what its zoning permits. It has not changed, and did not attempt to change, what a recorded declaration forbids.

What the ordinance does

AO 2025-115(S-2) was introduced for reading on October 7, 2025 and adopted December 16, 2025 on a 10–2 vote.¹ It works on three parts of the municipal code at once:

• Title 21 (zoning) — short-term rentals are expressly allowed in all residential districts and in some commercial districts. Bed-and-breakfast is eliminated as a separate use type.
• Title 10 — a new Chapter 10.90 creates the registration scheme, administered by the Municipal Clerk. Registration is free and online.
• Title 12 — hosting platforms must report for tax purposes, and are barred from collecting fees on unregistered properties.

The definition of a short-term rental names condominiums explicitly: “A separate and distinct living unit, which may be a house, town home, condominium, studio unit, bedroom…” Registrants must report the unit type, condominium among the options.

So the drafters plainly had condominium units in mind. They simply did not address the private-restriction question.

Deadlines and scale

The registration portal opened May 1, 2026, with registration required by July 31, 2026. The city subsequently extended the grace period to October 1, 2026. The 12% bed tax applies, and penalties run to $1,000.

By early September 2026, more than 2,500 properties had registered. Girdwood alone accounts for roughly 18% of them.²

1. AO 2025-115(S-2), Municipality of Anchorage — short-term rental registration ordinance, full text (amending AMC Titles 10, 12 and 21) ↩
2. "Anchorage data shows Girdwood, South Addition with large number of short-term rentals," Alaska Public Media, September 1, 2026 ↩
3. Sarah A. Badten, "The Battle Over Short-Term Rentals in Alaska's HOAs and Condos," Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot, January 15, 2026 ↩
4. "Municipality of Anchorage will require registration for short-term rentals," Office of the Mayor press release ↩