NASHVILLE - While cities like Chattanooga and Nashville wrestle with how their communities should best regulate short-stay, internet-facilitated home and room rentals, some Tennessee lawmakers continue to eye wading in and imposing their own solution.
A heavily lobbied state bill last spring, which sought to override local governments' efforts to regulate Airbnb and other internet companies' business model, fell short in the General Assembly back in March.
But Thursday, the concept - and the battle - was back, this time before a specially created Senate Short Term Rental Summer Study Committee.
There, a trio of Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, listened and asked questions as proponents, including Airbnb, two Nashville Airbnb "hosts" who use the for-profit service to rent their homes, and the free market advocacy group Beacon Center squared off against the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association, the Tennessee Municipal League and others, including a Chattanooga city councilman.
No decisions were made at the hearing. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said it's not clear whether the panel will even make recommendations to the new 110th General Assembly that takes office in January.
Still, the commission discussion laid bare many of the tensions on the issue. They include homeowners who want to rent their property and argue property rights versus fellow residential property owners or home and apartment dwellers opposed to disruptions to their community and their own property rights.
And that's not counting the added complications of the internet business model colliding with traditional hotels and motels, who say its unfair to hold them to different standards than their new competitors. Meanwhile, condo associations worry about their property rights from owners-turned-renters in a large building or community.
And local governments have their own general interests in maintaining order, safety and health codes in residential neighborhoods, not to mention getting taxes.
As Metro Nashville Councilwoman Berkely Allen sought to describe one of Nashville's proposed restrictions involving the number of licenses per census tract, Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, growled and warned her to use caution because owners should be able to "use that property how they want to."
"Be real careful bringing that before this General Assembly," Green said.
But Allen said all property owners should be accommodated. She later described a Nashville situation involving a drunken reveler staying at one property who mistakenly stumbled into another home and encountered a frightened child. The public and local government has an interest is orderly regulation, she argued.
Nashville has also apparently become a sort of destination for bachelorette parties, and the neighborhood rentals have become popular.
Also speaking at the hearing was Chattanooga Councilman Chip Henderson, who described the city's proposed approach.
That approach, delayed earlier this week, calls for allowing short-term vacation rental operations within R1 residential zones through a certification process instead of through current rezoning procedures. Other homeowners would be able to object.
Henderson said in an interview after Thursday's Senate hearing that he believes the "Chattanooga legislation strikes a balance between the Airbnbs, but it also affords protections to the neighborhoods, who just don't want them in there."
During the hearing, Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, urged his GOP colleagues to consider letting local governments continue working on their respective hearings and holding off on any statewide approach unless it is truly is necessary.
Watson later described Thursday's meeting as "just a conversation" and "fact finding. I haven't been as engaged in the conversation as other members have been. I didn't have quite as much knowledge as others. So this was helpful to me."
He said property owners, businesses, governments and others are struggling across the country on such issues created as the internet's so-called "sharing economy" continues to barrel on.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.