Several Kenton County mayors are expressing concern about the resurgence of possible legislation in Frankfort that would ban local governments from instituting regulations on short-term rentals, such as licensing requirements and caps on the number of rentals that can be established in certain areas.
“We want to oppose that,” Taylor Mill Mayor Dan Bell told the Kenton County Mayors Group Saturday morning, “so we can’t have a proliferation of short-term rentals throughout whatever city you’re in.”
This would not be the first time that legislators in Frankfort have tried to curtail local regulations against short-term rentals, also known as Airbnbs after the website where rental owners can advertise their properties, nor is it the first time local leaders have expressed dismay at the prospect.
This year, the bill coming down the pike is Kentucky Senate Bill 112, which only has a single sponsor: Kentucky Sen. Craig Richardson, a Republican from Hopkinsville. If passed, the bill would ban local governments from mandating rental licensing requirements, imposing density limits and imposing residency requirements on owners, among other regulations that cities and local governments have enacted as short-term rentals have become more common.
Records of donations made to Richardson don’t indicate that he’s received direct donations from Airbnb or other short-term rental companies, although he did receive a $1,500 donation from the Kentucky Realtors PAC in 2024.
Bell broached the topic to the Kenton County mayors on Saturday, which prompted a deeper conversation among the mayors, who meet once a month to keep each other updated on things going on in their communities.
“It’s my understanding that Airbnb is paying some good money for some lobbyists right now,” said Fort Mitchell Mayor Greg Pohlgeers.
Airbnb lobbyists in Frankfort have argued for a contraction of local regulations before legislative committees in the past.
Northern Kentucky Reps. Kim Banta, Stephanie Dietz and Kim Moser also attended the meeting. Moser briefly commented that the issue related to “property rights” but didn’t expound beyond that. Bell and some of the other mayors didn’t find that line of thinking convincing; Independence Mayor Chris Reinersman even called it “a shallow argument.”
“We have zoning,” Reinersman said. “Why do we have zoning? It’s what we always do. We’ve got to weigh it against the impact it has on the people around them.”
Over the years, short-term rentals have been criticized due to their effect on local economies and housing. The fear is that unregulated short-term rental properties, especially in tourism-heavy cities along the river, can create de facto hotel districts in areas originally designed as permanent residential neighborhoods.
Moreover, a large number of short-term rentals can have effects on property values and rent prices. According to a 2020 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Southern California and California State University, which used Airbnb listing data from around the country, “a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices.
“Considering the median annual Airbnb growth in each zip code, these results translate to an annual increase of $9 in monthly rent and $1,800 in house prices for the median zip code in our data, which accounts for about one fifth of actual rent growth and about one seventh of actual price growth,” the study reads.
Senate Bill 112 was introduced to the Kentucky Senate on Jan. 21. It is currently awaiting a committee assignment.