Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Approves Draft Policy Changes on Short-Term Rentals

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — A special council meeting was held Thursday afternoon regarding the future of short-term rentals in Lexington.

The proposal aims to make changes to current policies established for short-term rentals in Lexington.

“We hope the policy changes will address some of the concerns we’re hearing from neighborhood associations or neighbors within our residential neighborhoods about the concentration of short-term rentals,” says Tracy Wade, planning manager for the Planning Division.

Urban County Council members conduct surveys to gather information to help modify policies to address any concerns.
Planning Division workers say they saw 70 applications last year and approved about 75 percent of those unhosted short-term rentals.
So what’s the difference between hosted and non-hosted?

“The fact that the person offering the short-term rental is present at the location while the visitors are there and the guests are staying with them. On the other hand, if they are not a host, it means that the person offering the rental lives somewhere else,” Wade added.

During the meeting, the council also heard details about how close these STRs (short-term rentals) can be to each other in residential zones.

“A lot of the changes that you’ve seen that were proposed in today’s draft came strictly or directly from the neighborhoods that are feeling the impact. That’s why they feel that a maximum of 10 instead of 12 is a more appropriate number for residential neighborhoods. They’re also concerned about oversaturation of short-term rentals. That’s why we included the space requirement and also the setback requirement,” added At-Large Council Member James Brown.

Thursday marked the continuation of a long journey, as the project was approved and moves to the full council.
But there are still a few other hurdles to overcome.

“The council is going to finish reviewing this and it looks like they’re going to report back in September. And if they decide that these changes need to go forward, they’ll initiate what we call a text amendment and that will go to the Planning Commission for further review. The Planning Commission has two months to review the application and then they’ll hold a public hearing where any citizen in the community can come and speak and they’ll make a recommendation to the Urban County Council on the proposed text changes,” Wade also said.

If you already have a permit, you are in good standing, all you would need to do is renew your license at the end of its validity.