Lexington mulling a clamp down on short-term rentals. Special meeting set for Thursday

Beth Musgrave
Colin Murphey/AP

Less than nine months after an ordinance regulating short-term rentals took effect, the Lexington council is mulling tightening up city rules to stop proliferation of the vacation rental homes in certain neighborhoods.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council General Government and Planning Committee will hold a special meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers to discuss some of the proposed changes. Also on the agenda is a proposal to allow for digital billboards in Fayette County, which has long been debated in Lexington’s second-largest city.

Some of the proposed changes the committee will discuss include restrictions on how many short-term rentals can be located in an area, according to information about the meeting released Tuesday.

What the changes include

  • Unhosted short-term rentals, which require a conditional use permit in residential areas, can not be located within 500 feet of another short-term rental. There are currently no distance requirements. Unhosted rentals do not have the owner living on the property.

  • The number of unhosted short-term rentals can not exceed 3 % of the residential units within 1,000 feet in a residential zone

  • Decreasing the maximum number of people allowed in a short-term rental depending on where the short-term rental was located.

  • Tightening up requirements on hosted rentals to ensure the person who is listed as the host lives on the property

Council’s short-term rental ordinance

The council originally passed a short-term rental ordinance in July 2023 but gave short-term rental operators until January 2024 to comply.

But the Board of Adjustment, which grants conditional use permits, quickly ran into issues trying to interpret the ordinance. Many neighborhoods fighting the permits for short-term rentals alleged there were too many in the neighborhood. The current ordinance has no restrictions on how many short-term rentals are allowed in a certain area.

The original ordinance did have a distance restriction but it was taken out before final passage in July 2023.

For example, Kenwick and Mentelle Park, near downtown and the popular National Avenue entertainment district, have more than 40 short-term rentals.

In June results from Engage Lexington, a new online tool to gather public feedback on issues facing the council, showed that vast majority of people wanted density restrictions on short-term rentals like VRBO or Airbnb.

Discussion about electric billboards in Lexington

Another contentious topic to be discussed during Thursday’s meeting is electronic billboards.

The council first started discussions about digital billboards in 2017. A series of lawsuits at the state and federal level delayed those discussions.

The proposed ordinance would allow for digital billboards in certain areas -- only along state and federal highways. But the billboards can’t be within 150 feet of a residential zone. Digital billboards need to be placed 2,500 feet from another digital billboard, according to city documents.

Other counties, including Jessamine County, allow digital billboards.

Any changes to short-term rentals and allowing digital billboards will require a zoning text amendment. Zoning text amendments must also be vetted and voted on by the Urban County Planning Commission. That process takes months to complete. The public will have the opportunity over the coming months to comment on the proposed changes before a final vote.

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