The City of Brentwood is once again expressing its opposition to proposed legislation, which would override local zoning authority to regulate short-term rentals within a municipality. The latest version of Senate Bill 1086 filed at the Tennessee General Assembly would prohibit local governments from using zoning powers to determine the extent to which short-term rentals should be allowed in their communities.
Brentwood City Commissioners passed a resolution in 2017 stating that since 1935, cities in Tennessee have been empowered to exercise control over uses of private property through zoning regulations and doing so allows each local government to maintain its own character and identity. The resolution resolves that the City of Brentwood publically oppose any legislation that would limit the ability of local governments to regulate the location of short-term rental properties through local zoning regulations.
Currently, Brentwood’s municipal code protects homeowners by prohibiting rentals in single-family residential zoning districts for less than three months. The City of Brentwood vigorously enforces this code, and has previously issued citations to homeowners who continued to rent their homes or portions of their homes on a short-term basis after being notified by the City.
Brentwood is a unique community with almost ninety percent of the City zoned as residential. The City has clear delineations between the commercial districts and residential areas. City Manager Kirk Bednar stated “The fundamental issue here is an effort by one commercial industry to get the legislature to provide it with a state-wide exception to every locally adopted zoning ordinance. The state has left these type of land use decisions to local governments for over eighty years because local officials’ best represent the wishes of their communities. If this effort is successful, it will set a very dangerous precedent and open the door for any other commercial enterprise to look to the legislature for similar ‘one-size fits all’ land use exemptions.”
