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The Lexington Planning Commission approved the city’s first conditional use permit for a detached accessory dwelling unit at its regular meeting on June 27.
The application came from Joey and Tori Bates, who live at 313 S. Jefferson St. to convert a portion of an existing garage that they recently built on their property into an accessory dwelling unit. The ADU faces White Street and the address for it will be 103 White St. They plan to use the ADU as a short-term rental in place of their primary residence, which they have been previously using as a short-term rental.
Commissioner Mary Stuart Harlow expressed concern about the use of the ADU as a short-term rental as opposed to a long-term housing option.
“When we voted on all this and drew up the guidelines, it did seem like we were hoping to make more options for long-term housing for people as opposed to short-term rentals,” she said. “So I want us to really examine that.”
Commissioner Leslie Straughan noted that there were a number of provisions within the ADU ordinance to prevent an oversaturation of short-term rentals in the city, including limiting property owners to one short-term rental per property and only allowing detached ADUs to be rented as short-term rentals for 45 nights per year.
City planner Arne Glaeser noted that there was an option to review the ordinance after getting a few applications and seeing if there were areas that may need to be amended.
Straughan moved to approve the conditional use permit and Jon Eastwood, who served as temporary chair for the meeting, provided the second. The motion passed in a 3-1 vote, with Harlow voting against. Commissioners Patrick Bradley, John Driscoll and Shannon Spencer were not in attendance.
