By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
As Bowling Green City Council members on Thursday debated strategic goals for 2026, some new life was breathed into an old idea.
Now that the city’s rental housing registration and self-inspection program is in its second year, council members wanted to revisit independent audits of the inspection program.
Currently, owners of rental housing – apartments and homes – submit results of their own inspections of their properties. When some city leaders had tried to require third party inspections, Bowling Green landlords overwhelmingly protested – insisting that the vast majority of rental units are safe and would pass inspections, and requiring outside inspections was unnecessary.
However, a couple years into the registration and inspection program, council agreed that a worthy goal for 2026 would be requiring independent inspections of a portion of the housing, then comparing the independent reports with the self-inspection reports.
Council members Jeff Dennis and Joel O’Dorisio spoke in favor of the independent audits that could be performed by city employees. If the audits showed that the self-inspections by landlords included viable information, then they may not be required.
Council member Rachel Phipps said the rental registration and inspection ordinance already allows for the audit of the inspections submitted to the city.
The majority of the council agreed Thursday evening that inspection audits would be a worthy goal for council to prioritize.
As of this year, there are 7,285 rental housing units registered in Bowling Green. As of earlier this month, 1,462 self-inspection reports had been submitted to the planning office. Those reports are due Dec. 31.
Last year, one rental owner was taken to court due to lack of communication and failure to provide the required interior and exterior self-inspections in 2024.
More than 7,000 self-inspections were conducted last year, with 21 failing the inspections, according to the city planning department. Of those, 10 had been fixed, five were under renovation, and updates were still being awaited for the others.
During the strategic planning meeting, council discussed other possible goals for next year, regarding neighborhood revitalization efforts, housing, subdivision regulations, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and sustainability. A story will appear next week in BG Independent News explaining the city administration’s and city council’s goals for 2026.
