By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green City Council adopted an ordinance Monday evening aimed at making short-term rental properties more neighborly toward long-term residents.
The ordinance will require short-term rental properties to pay the city’s hotel-motel tax, meet inspection requirements, and have limits on occupancy. Another amendment was added Monday evening requiring property owners to advise renters to use off-street parking before taking on-street parking spots.
A series of amendments were added Monday by council members Katelyn Elliott, Bill Herald and Kathleen Dennis.
Dennis said she has heard concerns from constituents about short-term rental residents taking up on-street parking spaces in residential areas.
“This encourages good neighborliness,” she said of the amendment added.
However, council members and City Attorney Hunter Brown discussed that while the owners can inform renters of the parking stipulation, the city can’t restrict them from on-street parking.
At the request of Herald, an amendment was added prohibiting unlawful discrimination by owners of short-term rentals.
Earlier this spring, City Council members discussed constituent concerns about short-term rentals.
In recent years, several owner-occupied homes have been converted into short-term rental housing. A recent check of vacation rental sites – like Vrbo and Airbnb – showed nearly 50 such properties in Bowling Green, according to council member Kathleen Dennis.
Until now, the city had no regulations for such short-term rentals.
“This is a business they are running,” which should be regulated, Dennis said.
The proposed ordinance defines a short-term rental as “any room or dwelling that is rented wholly or partly for a fee for fewer than 30 days at a time by persons other than the permanent occupant or owner from which the permanent occupant or owner receive monetary compensation, whether such compensation is paid directly by the short-term rental guest or is collected and remitted to the permanent occupant or owner by a hosting platform.”
The ordinance would require owners of short-term rentals to:
- Register the rental with the city and inspect the site.
- Submit an annual $150 registration fee.
- Have an authorized agent physically located within 35 miles of the city of Bowling Green, in order to serve as a contact who will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The maximum number of occupants who will be accommodated at short-term rentals will not exceed two per bedroom, plus three additional occupants. This information shall be posted inside each short-term rental in a conspicuous location.
The rentals must pay the city’s hotel-motel tax, to be deposited into the city’s general fund.
Each short-term rental unit must have fully functional life safety equipment on premises and installed to manufacturer specifications, including smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers.
The properties will be subject to penalties for such infractions as creating noise audible beyond the boundary of the property, occupancy exceeding the limits, uninvited entry by renters of adjoining private property, and violations of nuisance party regulations.
City Council members reported that they have heard from their constituents about the uncertainties of short-term rentals next door in their neighborhoods. Neighbors are uneasy about homes being converted into short-term rentals.
“They don’t know who’s going to be there week to week,” Jeff Dennis said during earlier discussions.
Joel O’Dorisio said he was hearing the same concerns.
“People are unsettled by having short-term rentals in their neighborhood,” he said. “The turnover is rapid and unsettling,” unlike regular rentals where neighbors get to know the renters next door.
