Board approves one permit, denies one permit allowing short-term rentals

BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
GLASGOW NEWS 1
The Glasgow Board of Adjustment approved one of two conditional-use permit applications from a property owner to offer two houses he owns as a short-term rentals through third parties such as airbnb or Vrbo.
The other application was denied at the end of the 2.5-hour meeting that included a separate public hearing for each application and testimony from neighbors as well as the property owner, Craig Mosier.
The first of the properties is a two-bedroom, one bathroom home at 221 Garmon Ave., less than a mile from T.J. Samson Community Hospital. Mosier said his primary intended rental audience would be medical professionals such as travel nurses, residency students, etc. that may not desire a longer-term lease. In between those stays, it could be available for tourists, workers who are on short-term contract projects, as with construction, and even people who are visiting loved ones in the hospital or attending funeral services, as the house is practically around the corner from a funeral home.
The property shares a driveway with the house next door, and the owner of that property and the person leasing it both testified that they didn’t have an objection to the proposed usage, per se, but they had concerns about renters blocking the other side of the driveway and/or access to a shared storage building/garage at the rear of the two properties.
“Whoever’s there has got to understand they only have half the driveway,” said Frank Rowland, the owner of the neighboring property.
With the possibility raised of a stipulation that all larger vehicles be required to use street parking, another neighbor from farther away, along a different street within the subdivision, who said she uses Garmon to access Happy Valley Road, when multiple larger vehicles and, at one time, a boat are parked along the street, there is only room for one vehicle to go through at a time.
Ultimately, a motion to allow the conditional-use permit for that address was approved unanimously, with all five members present, but several stipulations were applied, including quiet hours from 11 p.m. to 7 p.m., no driveway blocking and oversized vehicles to park along the street, rental time minimum of three days and maximum of three months.
The other home had been Mosier’s residence from which he moved at the first of the year, he said. It’s a four-bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house at 204 Morningside Drive, which actually adjoins the hospital property.
It has its own driveway, though it runs alongside another that rises to a slightly higher elevation as it goes toward the rear of the property, and the owner of that adjoining property, Jeff Maples, said that although he would rather have Mosier as a neighbor again and neither meant to support nor oppose the permit, he thought it was “a great option.”
“I trust Craig. He’s a good neighbor. He takes care of his property,” Maples said.
A different neighbor, Barry Landrum, agreed that Mosier was a good neighbor, but he was opposed to the proposed use. He brought along a petition from 11 other property owners saying they were opposed as well, and he produced what he said was a list of restrictions that had been on the deed since the subdivision was created that specified the properties in the subdivision could only be used for a residential purpose, among other things. He was not keen on having unknown people staying there.
Mosier said they could just as easily run into issues with longer-term renters, and it’s a longer and more difficult process to get them moved out if and when that occurs.
Kevin Myatt, planning director for the Joint City-County Planning Commission of Barren County, said the conditional use they would be allowing with approval of the permit would have to be considered a commercial use, but he added that the deed restrictions had no bearing on what the board could or could not do. Any issues that would arise from that would be a civil matter among the property owners. Based on the discussion, though, that and the neighbors’ opposition clearly concerned at least some of the board members.
Testimony regarding this application, along with questions and comments from board members, continued for more than an hour. When the time came to entertain a motion, none was offered in either direction for several minutes. The possibility of tabling the matter until the next meeting was discussed, and Myatt said that, though no more testimony would allowed as the hearing on the matter had closed, the sign would have to be reposted and notices readvertised. After several more minutes of consideration of that option, a motion to deny the application was unanimously approved.
Earlier in the meeting Tuesday, the board unanimously approved a variance application of 11 feet to the 20-foot rear-yard setback requirement for the property at 1 YMCA Way, per Section 158.180(B)(2) of the Glasgow Zoning Ordinance, Myatt said.