Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, is proposing allowing commissioners to opt their district out of the minimum lot size requirements recently put in place by the board for short-term vacation rentals in unincorporated areas of the county.
Otherwise, Graham said he will encourage his constituents who are unable to operate short-term rentals on their properties due to the new requirements to sue the county.
“The people in my district who have already bought lots that think they can do short-term vacation rentals, I’m going to encourage them to sue the county because they bought it with the premise that they could do that because our rules were in place at the time,” Graham said, referring to the short-term rental regulations passed by the commission last year.
After an effort to ban short-term rentals in residential districts and on properties smaller than 5 acres in agricultural districts in unincorporated Hamilton County failed, commissioners voted to restrict such rentals from residential properties of less than 1 acre or agricultural properties of less than 2 acres in unincorporated areas.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County strengthens restrictions on short-term rentals)
County Attorney Rheubin Taylor told the commission Wednesday that an amendment increasing the minimum lot size restriction for agricultural districts to 2.5 acres that was believed to have failed due to a lack of majority actually should have passed.
“We had one commissioner that actually had left, but their belongings were here so the assumption was that they were still here,” Chair Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said of the confusion concerning the vote on the amendment.
The amendment was declared to have failed by a 5-3 vote, with Commissioners Graham, Mike Chauncey, R-East Ridge, and David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, voting no. Commissioner Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, abstained.
However, Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, was present at the meeting but left before the vote; so with nine rather than 10 commissioners present, five votes would be a majority and the amendment should have been declared as having passed.
A new resolution that includes the amendment is being prepared.
Small portions of Graham’s district are in unincorporated areas, including parts of Aetna Mountain, Lookout Mountain and Highway 11.
“I’m in basically the tourist part of town,” Graham said of his district, which includes attractions such as the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and the new Lookouts stadium, as well as several hotels and restaurants.
The city of Chattanooga created a zone within which certain requirements for short-term vacation rentals do not apply, and Graham asked if a similar district could be drawn for the unincorporated areas of his district and the districts of other county commissioners who may want their unincorporated areas to be included in the overlay.
He proposed that short-term rentals within the overlay be required to follow all short-term rental regulations aside from the minimum lot size requirements.
Many short-term rentals already exist in those areas, including properties nearby in the city of Chattanooga’s short term rental overlay, Graham said.
While the minimum lot size restrictions addressed the concerns of property owners on Chickamauga Lake, Graham’s district has different problems, he said.
“I don’t have bass boats and fishermen and people who are partying on the lake,” Graham said. “I have people who are coming here to be a part of our tourism trade.”
He said he feels allowing commissioners to opt their district out of the lot size restriction would be a good compromise that addresses the concerns of property owners on the lake while allowing people in his district to operate short-term vacation rentals on properties they purchased for that purpose before the lot size restriction was put in place.
Mackey said he is open to revisiting the lot size restriction legislation if he could opt his district out.
Taylor said he would look into the legality of the county making regulations applicable to certain areas while excluding others.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.