As short-term rental listings in Butler County have increased by 77% since January 2023, local cities and townships are looking to institute regulations.

Tracy Kocher, executive director of Travel Butler County, said there are about 817 Airbnb and VRBO listings throughout the county and “if each of these units were filled in one night, they could accommodate almost 5,000 people.”

Fairfield, Fairfield Township, Hamilton and Oxford have new or updated regulations in place and West Chester Township. will soon vote on the rules. Fairfield Township. is the only community to completely ban residential areas.

Chuck Goins of Fairfield Township. B&B establishments and vacation rentals are authorized under conditions in business districts.

Fairfield is the latest of the county’s largest communities to impose restrictions on vacation rentals. Fairfield Development Services Director Greg Kathman told the Journal-News that the City Council approved a number of changes to the planning and zoning code earlier this year, including regulating short-term rentals .

Some of the provisions include limiting the number of tenants to two tenants per sleeping area and no more than five tenants at a time per unit, a minimum of two guaranteed off-street parking spaces, and tents and recreational vehicles are not permitted.

“We considered additional regulations such as local licensing and imposing an accommodation tax, but decided not to implement these measures. Fairfield does not appear to be as impacted by short-term rentals as some of our neighboring communities, so we have not deemed it necessary to develop this level of regulation at this time,” he said. “We tried to strike a balance between protecting the rights of individual property owners and protecting the rights and property values ​​of the surrounding neighborhood.”

Hamilton Neighborhood Services Executive Director Liz Hayden said they charge $25 a year, but it’s free for those who rent their own home. She said that recently the City Council approved “some pretty basic updates to our short-term rental permit that make the enforcement language clearer.”

There has been discussion about banning rentals in some neighborhoods — neighbors in the Highland Park and Hickory Woods subdivisions have expressed concerns — but rentals will remain citywide. There are currently 92 licensed properties.

Community Development Director Sam Perry told the Journal-News Oxford requires a permit and inspection and charges an annual fee of $57.75 that “mimics” the student housing rental program. They also charge a 6% lodging tax. They have been doing this for three years on vacation rentals and there are around sixty of them.

He said that last month the City Council imposed a primary residence requirement for properties on the city’s west side, away from the University of Miami campus, and last week it had placed a moratorium on short-term rentals in “Mile Square” so staff could recruit additional landlords. occupancy regulations.

He said they are trying to preserve the housing stock so it doesn’t get swallowed up by investment properties.

“There has been an underproduction of housing for 10 or 15 years, the demand for housing has exceeded production,” Perry said. “So in our little neck of the woods, we’re trying to do our part to encourage housing and also to retain the homes that we have.”

West Chester Township. is undergoing final review of zoning code updates and Community Development Director Katy Kanelopoulos said, “We will define short-term rentals in our new code and hope to limit which districts allow them. »

Trustee Mark Welch said they would likely limit short-term rentals to higher-density areas of the township.

“The biggest desire of the township is just to protect the integrity of the subdivisions so that we don’t get a bunch of long-term or short-term rentals,” he said, adding that they don’t have problem with individuals renting their homes while they are away, but they do not want “a flood” of large corporations buying land that “could change the character of the community.”

Officials from other communities like Liberty Twp. and New Miami say they will look into the matter. Butler County commissioners refused to regulate vacation rentals when it was suggested a few years ago. The townships governed by county zoning are Hanover, Lemon, Madison, Milford, Oxford and Ross.

“You have to think about it now, it’s a whole new ball game, there’s a lot more now than before,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “I think this is something we need to look at nationwide and come to a consensus.”

Remove regulation

Some state lawmakers want to limit local jurisdictions’ ability to regulate vacation rentals. A similar effort failed in 2022, and Kocher said she thought the idea was bad for local communities.

“I’ve talked to a lot of our communities and the concern here is a home rule issue,” Kocher said. “I believe local decisions regarding when and where short-term rentals should be implemented should be made at the local level, not through state law.”

Senate Bill 299 was introduced on June 24 and referred to the Select Committee on Housing the next day. There have been no hearings yet because lawmakers left for summer vacation shortly afterward and will not return until after the Nov. 5 election.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, who is a licensed real estate agent with extensive experience in zoning and other property-related issues and who has been involved in short-term rentals , told the Journal-News he introduced the bill because the industry had evolved. , “there are checks and balances” and “there are a lot of things that are in place that make them useful for local owners as well as the market.”

Brenner said if his bill ultimately passes, it would “undo” Fairfield’s ban on residential areas.

“I am ready to compromise with all parties,” he said. “I introduced this bill knowing that I will have to make some changes to it. This is probably the most important change I need to make: my bill had no intention of prohibiting the collection of sales tax or bed taxes…I intend to have a sub-bill to solve this problem.

Brenner said rules and approaches to owner occupancy, such as those being considered by West Chester, strike him as unacceptable.

“This idea that you can zone it a certain way or put in zoning that says we only want short-term rentals here but we don’t want them here, can be discriminatory on its face,” he said. he said and later added, “to suggest that they have to be owner occupied only, well that means there are just no short term rentals, that’s a reverse way of banning them.

Brenner said he did not expect his bill to pass in the “lame duck” session after the election, but would reintroduce the measure next year.