A resolution that would have prohibited new short-term vacation rentals in residential zones of unincorporated Hamilton County failed to pass the County Commission and was sent back to a committee for tweaking over the next 30 days.
“I wore my tie today showing the American flag because if this resolution passes, we’re trampling the rights of the people that want to rent their house,” Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, said Wednesday at the meeting. “Our rules are working.”
Graham and Commissioner Gene-o Shipley, R-Soddy-Daisy, co-chaired the committee that worked to develop the new regulations for short-term rentals the commission voted to put in place last year.
“There’s two sets of property rights here, not just one,” Shipley said at the meeting. “The property rights of people that own and live in their home is one thing, and to put commercial business in the neighborhoods is wrong, in my opinion.”
People against the resolution spoke to the commission about the economic benefits short-term rentals provide to the county, the jobs they create and how profits from operating such rentals allow them to retire, pay for college or make a living.
Citizens in favor of the resolution questioned how commercial businesses are defined and why short-term rentals are allowed in residential zones while other businesses are not. They also questioned what residents should do if violations occur since the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is unable to enforce regulations that don’t break Tennessee state law.
“Everyone has property rights, 100%,” Graham said at the meeting. “Now you might not agree with them, but if you don’t agree with your neighbor, that’s what fences are for.”
Without putting the resolution up for vote, County Commission Chair Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said he wanted to send it back to the committee tasked with crafting the regulations for short-term rentals for revisions.
“I want us within 30 days to tweak this and come back to this commission, and I want us to be prepared to put an agenda in front of us that we can protect the rights of landowners to do what they want to do with their property and then we can protect the rights of landowners that also have concerns about what their boundary neighbors are doing in their property as well,” Eversole said.
All 11 commissioners will participate in the committee, as opposed to just the typical three members, Eversole said.
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“I think that we’re naive to think that short-term vacation is here today and gone tomorrow,” Eversole said. “I think it’s the new way.
“That doesn’t mean I’m for short-term vacation in residential zones.”
Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, objected to sending the resolution back to the committee, but the objection failed by a 7-3 vote with Shipley and Commissioner Ken Smith, R-Hixson, also voting in favor of the objection.
In response to a question from Commissioner Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, Hamilton County Director of Development Services Nathan Janeway said that, if passed, the resolution would be disruptive to the county’s new regulatory processes for short-term rentals that the commission put in place last year.
“In my opinion, we have not given it time to work itself out,” Janeway said. “The bad actors that we do have — the people that are violating the rules — we’ve had one or two instances that were reported, and we haven’t gotten to a point where we can actually do anything with the rules that we have in place.”
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.