‘Stay in your lane.’ KY legislator targets Lexington policies on Airbnbs | Opinion

A Bourbon County state senator thinks Lexington has overstepped with its policies regulating short-term rentals, like Airbnb and VRBO.

It’s yet another step for GOP legislator to interfere with cities’ policies they think are too left-leaning, even to the party that used to tout local control.

Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, whose district includes the northern tip of Fayette County, has filed Senate Bill 236 to stop Lexington and other cities from enacting policies that limit short-term rental properties. Last year, Lexington passed regulations that require short-term rental operators to register their properties and pay a fee. There are also limits on the number of people that can be hosted, and if the owner doesn’t live on the property, they have to get a conditional use permit.

West’s bill says that short-term rentals should be allowed under any residential zones. Conditional use permits for non-occupied properties would be allowed to a point. But it says “a planning unit shall not pass, interpret, or enforce its ordinances in a manner that is intended or has the effect of prohibiting or unreasonably restricting short term rentals.”

It does allow permits and permit fees, but would require them to be no greater than $150. Lexington’s current permit fee is $200. The bill does allow the city to take action on noise and other safety complaints.

Some Lexington neighborhoods would like to see Lexington’s ordinance changed so it would limit the number of short-term rentals in a neighborhood.

Louisville changed its ordinance in September 2023 to put stricter limits on how many unhosted short-term rentals can be in a neighborhood after getting multiple complaints about the proliferation of short-term rentals and loss of housing in popular downtown neighborhoods.

West, a real estate lawyer who was part of House Bill 18, which has successfully stopped Lexington and Louisville from source of income discrimination bans, said the bill came about after a conversation with an Airbnb lobbyist. Louisville and Georgetown also have short-term rental regulations and would be affected.

He called the policies “reactionary.”

“I think that some of the cities have gotten out of their lane, they need to stay in their own lane when it comes to certain issues,” West said. “Where does the state line stop and the city’s lines begins when it comes to protections of individual property rights?”

The bill has been assigned to the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee. West said he’s happy to discuss possible changes, calling it “a work in progress,” and “an initial shot across the bow.”

Local control: good until it’s not

SB 236 is the latest of what’s called “preemption” bills from a conservative General Assembly trying to rein in what it sees as the too-liberal policies of cities.

West is at the forefront. In addition to overturning Lexington and Louisville’s source of income bans, and regulating Airbnbs, he has also filed SB 233, which would limit solar facilities in counties.

House Bill 581 would prevent any differential zoning treatment between gas stations and EV charging stations. House Bill 102 would basically scrap most local planning and zoning regulations.

The legislature has also reupped action against Louisville, everything from breaking up the school district to requiring nonpartisan local elections.

Even House Bill 5, the omnibus crime bill, would override city and county policies on homelessness by making it a crime that police must address.

The Kentucky League of Cities is trying to talk to legislators about this approach.

“We believe local decisions are best made at local level by the people who have been elected locally,” said J.D. Chaney, executive director of the KLC.

What’s strange is that the Republican Party used to embrace local control, from schools to counties and cities. But the power of a legislative supermajority means the attractions of local control pale next to overturning policies they deem too progressive.

University of Kentucky political scientist Steve Voss said this conflict has always been part of the urban/rural divide; the capitol of Louisiana is in Baton Rouge, for example, because rural legislators ruled it had to be a certain number of miles away from the morally suspect city of New Orleans.

But “I do think it’s (the political conflict) getting worse nationwide as politics becomes more rooted in place, as cities become overwhelming Democratic,” he said.

What’s unusual in Kentucky, he said, is that legislators are blocking things before or as they happen, as they did with Lexington’s source of income ban.

“We see the Republican supermajority anticipate left leaning policy and heading it off,” Voss said. “They are primed to expect trouble.”

On the one hand, elections have consequences. On the other, our gerrymandered political districts, designed to shortchange Democrats, mean that people in cities are already disenfranchised in Frankfort. Regulating Airbnbs or formulating homeless policy is something dedicated local officials spend a lot of time and energy working on. In our reactive political times, it’s too bad legislators can’t respect that work and its results.

But as West said, “absolutely local control — it’s all good as long as you stay in your lane.”