Board hears multiple short‑term rental requests; staff and rural‑land easement dispute shapes decisions

The Lexington‑Fayette Urban County Board of Adjustment on June 1 took up several short‑term rental (STR) requests and related conditional‑use permits. The hearing highlighted two competing rules: the zoning code’s STR spacing and concentration limits, and the limits written into permanent purchase‑of‑development‑rights (PDR) easements that may prohibit commercial uses of conserved farmland.

PDR easement vs zoning: the most contested case involved a parcel subject to a PDR easement. Planning staff recommended disapproval because the property is restricted by a recorded PDR easement held by the Fayette County Rural Land Management Board and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Beth Overman, director of the rural land management board, told the board the recorded easement specifically prohibits “commercial or industrial uses” not explicitly reserved in the deed and that NRCS concurs. An NRCS official emailed staff during the review period saying short‑term rentals would be a prohibited activity under the recorded deed. The applicant and his attorney argued the property had been used as short‑term lodging since 2019 and that a zoning compliance permit was denied because staff had not finalized the AR‑zone rule changes then under consideration; they said the prior use should be treated as a legal nonconforming use. Board members debated whether a recorded public easement is a…