Municipal officials, townships and tourism groups urge senators to preserve local control in hearing on Senate Bill 104

At a hearing on Senate Bill 104 before the Senate Local Government Committee, a wide range of local officials — including municipal managers, mayors, township trustees, and representatives of tourism organizations — testified overwhelmingly in opposition to the measure, saying it would unduly limit local zoning authority and tools used to manage neighborhood impacts from short-term rentals (STRs).

Opponents said the bill would preempt municipal home-rule authority and leave residents and local governments with fewer options to address noise, safety, neighborhood character and housing-stock loss. Several witnesses told senators they supported two elements in the bill — a registration requirement and a platform-based collection of lodging taxes — but said the bill’s broader preemption provisions would “handcuff” local governments.

Bevin Schneck, Director of Public Affairs at the Ohio Municipal League, said the league’s opposition rests on protecting the “Municipal Home Rule Authority found in Article 18 of the Ohio constitution.” Schneck told the committee that “this legislation would prevent municipal officials from creating necessary regulations and block them from being able to decide whether local policies regarding short term rental properties are in the best interest of their unique community.”

Kyle Brooks, director of governmental affairs for the Ohio Township Association, told senators that SB 104 “would effectively strip over half of Ohio's townships of their zoning authority” and said townships view the $20-per-year registration fee in the bill as insufficient to cover administrative costs. Several township witnesses urged a higher fee or other local flexibility to fund enforcement.

Local elected officials described specific neighborhood harms they said can follow when homes are converted to STRs. Paul Kumar, mayor of Bay Village, recounted a 2019 incident in which an absentee owner listed a lakefront house and “close to 500 people showed up for the birthday party at this house,” requiring multiple police agencies to intervene; Bay Village subsequently adopted a local prohibition on rentals shorter than 29 days. Patrick Ward, mayor of Lyndhurst, said his city charges a $100 per-year rental-registration fee and uses local inspections to protect tenant safety and neighborhood stability.

Tourism and convention officials offered mixed testimony. Beth Carmichael of Trumbull County Tourism and the Ohio Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus said STRs “are an important part of Ohio's travel economy” but warned that removing local regulatory tools “threaten[s] community stability, housing availability, and tax fairness.” Several local CVB representatives described lodging-tax revenue tied to STRs in their counties and supported platform remittance of lodging taxes and sales taxes.

Speakers from resort and island communities emphasized infrastructure and public-safety concerns. Ron Ehrbar, mayor of Kelly's Island, said his village requires transient rental permits because “a 4 bedroom house with 20 guests can put an extraordinary amount of pressure on a septic system” and said local regulation is needed to protect public health and Lake Erie’s water quality. Danbury Township’s zoning administrator, Catherine Dale, warned that the bill’s proposed definition of STRs could allow large houses with five or more sleeping rooms to avoid building- and fire-code licensing that applies to hotels.

Several witnesses pointed to a tax and enforcement gap for properties with fewer than five rooms, and called for clearer rules ensuring lodging and sales taxes are collected and remitted. Dee Grossman, executive director of the Tuscarawas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said her county’s 120 STRs generated $1.9 million in host revenue in 2024 and that 85 percent of those rentals have fewer than five rooms, creating a sales-tax “loophole” under current rules.

Multiple speakers urged the committee to preserve local zoning authority and to allow communities to tailor responses — from bans in some neighborhoods to registration and inspection regimes in others. “The preservation of local control is critical,” Schneck said, because “what works for large urban cities does not always work for Ohio's smaller cities or villages.”

The hearing record shows substantial agreement across mayors, township trustees and tourism officials on two points: (1) platform remittance of lodging taxes is a needed fix and (2) if the state acts, it should leave municipalities room to regulate and enforce local standards, ensure code and fire-safety inspections where appropriate, and set registration fees sufficient to fund enforcement. The committee did not vote on SB 104 during the hearing; senators heard testimony and collected written comments for the committee record.