by Jackie Nunnery
LANCASTER—The Lancaster planning commission on Thursday, September 15, began discussions on how to address a growing list of complaints regarding short-term rentals in the county.
County administrator Don Gill said the number of rentals has risen from 10 in 2018 when the county adopted a short-term rental registry ordinance and a 2% transient occupancy tax. He said the number has “grown substantially to 67 units, and that’s the ones we know about. There could be others,” and that number would not include rentals within incorporated towns. As the number of rentals has increased, so too have “the number of complaints we have fielded,” Gill said, adding they are usually about parties, noise, the number of people on the property and trash.
According to Gill, after reviewing short-term rental ordinances from surrounding localities, “the one thing that struck me is that every one requires a special exception or conditional use permit. Currently we do not….
