Planning Commission approves new short-term rental regulations

Short-term rental approximate locations in Lexington. Data from AirDNA, image from Lexington's Division of Planning.

Last Thursday, the Planning Commission approved additional regulations for short-term rentals (STRs) in Lexington.

Council sent a package of new regulations to the Planning Commission in September. You can read about Council’s proposals here.

The regulations approved by the Planning Commission are slightly different than Council’s original proposal. Differences include:

• Preventing a new unhosted STR from being approved for a license if 2% of housing units within 1,000 feet are currently unhosted STRs.

  • The Council originally recommended a 3% threshold.

• Not allowing any new unhosted STR to be within 600 feet of another STR.

  • Council originally recommended a 500 foot buffer.

Other regulations included in the package are:

• Reducing occupancy limits in all STRs from a maximum of 12 guests to a maximum of 10 guests

• Setting two distance requirements for STRS.

  • An unhosted STRs unit — where the operator does not live on the property — may not be located within 500 feet of another unhosted unit.

  • Unhosted STRs wouldn’t be allowed to represent more than 3% of housing units inside any 1,000 foot circle in a neighborhood.

    • Some exceptions are included for units that are directly adjacent to business zones.

Now that the Planning Commission has approved the regulations, they will be sent back to Council for additional revisions and final approval.