JERSEY CITY — Pressure by Airbnb hosts led the City Council on Monday to scrap the city’s planned new regulations of short-term rentals and form a committee to draft a potential new set of rules.

The move is seen at least as a partial victory for the Airbnb hosts, who had been arguing to the council that their planned set of regulations would put them out of business.

The rules, which were up for final adoption on Wednesday, would have banned short-term rentals in any building with more than three units and capped at one the number of units in a two-family house that could be used as a short-term rental. They would also have required all Airbnb units to be located in owner-occupied homes.

They were drafted after residents complained to city officials that homes in their neighborhoods have turned into unofficial hotels.

Nathan Taylor, 40, who hosts Airbnb guests in an apartment he rents from someone else near Saint Peter’s University, called Monday’s decision a “small victory” because it gives him and others time to convince the city to reconsider any new regulations of short-term rentals.

“I don’t think that any regulation or ordinance should happen at all,” Taylor said. “I don’t think the city needs to do anything.”

Ward D Councilman Michael Yun led to effort to postpone Wednesday’s vote and set up a new committee to consider short-term rental regulations. Yun said the city’s 2015 move to set a tax for these rentals led people to invest in properties here, so Airbnb hosts should be involved in drafting new rules.

"We’ve got to protect the people of Jersey City, but also we have to not financially jeopardize people in the Airbnb business,” he said.

City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the Fulop administration is amenable to changes council members have suggested and believes a revised ordinance will be presented to the council in early June. None of the proposed revisions change the intent of the ordinance, she said.

The Hotel Trades Council, the union representing local hospitality workers, supported the new regulations. Mayor Steve Fulop said last month that “Airbnb has become in many situations ... the facilitator for full-time illegal hotels, rooming houses, or illegal hostels counter to existing zoning.”

Airbnb hosts say they have become a target because of issues — loud parties, alcohol use — that are not exclusively the fault of short-term renters.

“Airbnb hosts are being scapegoated for regular urban problems," he said. "In my neighborhood, people throw house parties. It’s not always Airbnb people.”

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.