Does Bardstown allow Airbnb?

Not as a blanket yes. Ag and residential short-term rentals need a Board of Adjustment CUP, then a change-of-use permit. File AirDNA forty four thousand three hundred dollars on one hundred eighty one listings beside AirROI thirty six thousand forty five dollars on one hundred thirty five listings, and do not invent a third average. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag one now here.

Filing stack is $445: $325 plus $60 CLUR plus $60 newspaper. Change of use is $100. Annual inspection is $150. Price January like January, keep Rabbu twenty six percent occupancy off the typical year, write occupancy forty nine percent beside forty point three percent, and do not steal a gorge week. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag two now here.

Does the CUP transfer on sale?

The CUP is in the name of the property owner. Heirs and assigns are bound to conditions. Type 1 and 2 fail if the new owner is not the on-site primary resident. The CUP hearing is a different file from Louisville Metro registration, the filing stack is four hundred forty five dollars, and this pack does not invent a hall phone. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag three now here.

Is occupancy two per bedroom plus two?

No. Live occupancy is two times bedrooms rented. Owner and family are not counted. Louisville AirROI twenty nine thousand four hundred ninety stays on its own Metro line, does not travel to a Bardstown APN, and should not be averaged into AirDNA n one hundred eighty one. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag four now here.

Is this legal advice?

No. Hosts confirm the planning file before listing. We market. We do not take the lock. Do not invent tax dollars beyond the three percent local transient room tax already sourced, confirm current remittance at draft, and keep trail visits off occupancy for this town file. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag five now here.

Did you invent a hall phone?

No. This cluster keeps zero phones. Address is 989 Chambers Boulevard. Do not invent a remaining count, comps should start with stays you can photograph, and Red River Gorge stays another region. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag six now here.

Does Louisville issue this permit?

No. Louisville Metro $250 annual registration is a different desk. Do not paste it onto Bardstown. Typical city year sits under forty five thousand so peak copy still has to be honest about occupancy disagreement, and a January trough week is not a filled October Saturday. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag seven now here.

What lodging tax applies?

Local 3 percent transient room tax plus state 6 percent sales and 1 percent TRT, combined 10 percent. Confirm remittance. Do not invent a hall phone, confirm the planning page before you advertise, and keep a Louisville skyline caption out of photo one unless this is the vs-Louisville slug. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag eight now here.

Is Type 3 banned in the city?

The June 2025 CUP form still stamps not permitted. The February 24, 2026 ordinance allows Type 3 in A-1 with a 400-foot rule. Ordinance controls. Seventy six cannot be treated as the AirDNA sample, occupancy forty percent is not occupancy forty nine percent, and two hundred seventy five dollars is the AirROI ADR line. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag nine now here.

Does Red River Gorge share this desk?

No. Slade is Powell County. Stanton city license is city limits only. Write Court Square and Federal Hill as a park, keep a gorge cabin week out of photo one, and treat Stanton as a neighbor desk not a second KEEP. Keep October priced like October on this extract. Independent hosts should still photograph Court Square this driveway actually has. Write Bardstown by name and keep Louisville off this caption. Answer tag ten now here.

Bardstown STR Rules: The Conditional Use Permit, Explained Plainly

Thomas Garner

Sep 4

12 min read

Spalding Hall brick facade after rain in Bardstown Kentucky, no people

If you're used to short-term rental rules meaning a form, a fee, and a confirmation email, Bardstown is going to surprise you. This town doesn't run a registration desk. It requires a Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, reviewed by the Board of Adjustment through the Joint City-County Planning Commission of Nelson County, known locally as the JCCPC. That's a genuine land-use review, not a license you buy, and treating it like a same-day sign-up is the fastest way to lose weeks you didn't budget for.

This is not legal advice. What follows is a plain description of the process, the fees, and the tiers as this research found them, sourced to the JCCPC's own materials and the city's zoning code. Confirm current requirements directly with the JCCPC before you file anything, since ordinance text and application forms can move, and this piece is a starting map, not a substitute for that conversation.

The reason this matters for marketing, not just compliance, is simple: a listing built on an unconfirmed or lapsed permit is a listing you can't legally advertise, no matter how good the photos are. Getting the CUP process right is the foundation everything else in this series sits on top of.

It's also worth naming why a land-use process like this exists in the first place, rather than treating it purely as an obstacle. A CUP review with a public hearing gives neighbors a formal chance to weigh in on a short-term rental opening near them, which is a genuinely different regulatory philosophy than a city that simply collects a registration fee and moves on. Understanding that the process is designed around neighbor notice, not just host paperwork, helps explain why the site plan and adjoining-owner notice requirements below exist at all.

A Conditional Use Permit, Not a License

The core distinction worth understanding first: Bardstown does not issue a short-term rental license. It requires a CUP, approved by the Board of Adjustment, under Article 12 of the current zoning ordinance. That means your application goes through a genuine land-use review process, not a counter transaction. Expect a pre-application step, a site plan, a floor plan, and a public hearing before your property is legally cleared to operate, and budget real weeks for that process, not days.

The fee stack reflects that review, not a flat registration charge. Based on JCCPC's published materials, the CUP application itself runs $445, a change-of-use fee adds $100, and an annual inspection adds $150, for a combined $695 before you've furnished a single room. If your application requires a special Board of Adjustment hearing, that can add roughly $1,500 more on top of the base stack, so a realistic budget range runs from $695 at the low end to potentially over $2,000 if your case needs that extra hearing. Confirm the current fee schedule directly with the JCCPC before you file, since fee schedules do get revised.

Any prior moratorium on new CUP applications in this jurisdiction has expired as of this research pass. That's worth confirming directly at the time you apply, since a moratorium status can change, but it means new applications are currently being accepted rather than paused.

The JCCPC's own planning office is a reasonable first stop for confirming any of the specifics in this piece before you file. This research pass did not confirm a phone number for that office, so treat any contact detail you find elsewhere as something to verify directly rather than something to publish in your own materials without confirming it first.

The Tiers: Type 1, Type 2, and a More Restricted Type 3

The CUP structure runs in tiers tied to how the property is used. Type 1 covers an owner-occupied principal dwelling, and Type 2 covers an owner-occupied accessory unit; both require the owner to physically reside on the property, and both are allowed across most residential and agricultural zoning districts plus the P-1 and B-1 commercial zones. If you're planning to live on-site and rent a portion of the property, this is the tier you're working with.

A third category, Type 3, applies to non-owner-occupied units, and it's considerably more restricted. Based on this research, it's limited to the A-1 agricultural zone, capped at one property with a 400-foot separation requirement from other non-owner-occupied short-term rentals, or up to six units in P-1/B-1 commercial zoning with no ground-floor units permitted. One important flag here: the JCCPC's own published application form appears to lag behind this ordinance language, meaning the paperwork you're handed may not yet fully reflect the Type 3 rules as written. Confirm the current, enforceable version of the Type 3 requirements directly with the JCCPC before assuming your non-owner-occupied plan qualifies, rather than relying on the form alone.

Occupancy across all tiers is capped at two guests per bedroom, and the Board of Adjustment retains the ability to restrict that further on a case-by-case basis during your hearing. Don't assume the two-per-bedroom figure is guaranteed as a maximum for your specific property; it's a ceiling the board can lower, not a floor guaranteed to every applicant.

The practical implication of the Type 1/Type 2 owner-occupancy requirement is worth spelling out plainly: if you're buying a Bardstown property purely as a non-owner-occupied investment, those two tiers won't apply to you at all, regardless of how the property was previously used. Confirm which tier actually fits your ownership plan before you assume a straightforward path to operating, since the Type 3 tier's own restrictions are considerably narrower than Type 1 or Type 2.

Stay Length, Taxes, and What Doesn't Have a Loophole

One detail worth stating plainly for anyone eyeing an extended-stay workaround: a stay of 30 consecutive days still falls under short-term rental rules and still requires the CUP. There's no documented exemption in this research for a longer booking window that removes the property from CUP requirements. If your business plan depends on month-long stays sidestepping the permit process, confirm that assumption directly with the JCCPC before building a listing strategy around it, since this research found no such carve-out.

On taxes, this research found a combined local and state transient-tax burden of roughly 10 percent: a 3 percent local transient room tax plus 6 percent state sales tax and 1 percent state transient tax. Separately, there's a city occupational tax calculated as 1 percent of net profits, not a flat per-listing STR fee, which is a different line item from the transient tax stack and shouldn't be confused with it. Confirm both the current transient-tax rate and the occupational-tax mechanics directly with the city's finance office before you set pricing or file your first return.

If your property sits outside Bardstown's city limits but still in Nelson County, this city-level CUP process is not the end of the story. Nelson County maintains its own separate overlay permit for short-term rentals operating outside the city boundary, a distinct filing from the city CUP described here. Confirm which jurisdiction actually governs your specific address before assuming the city process is the only one that applies.

Worth flagging directly: none of the fee, tax, or tier detail in this piece is legal advice, and confirming it directly with the JCCPC and the city's finance office before you file, price, or advertise is the responsible next step, not an optional extra. A phone call or in-person visit resolves more real risk here than any amount of research from a distance.

Building a Realistic Timeline

Because this is a land-use review rather than a registration, plan for a multi-week process from pre-application meeting to public hearing to final approval, not a same-week turnaround. The site plan, floor plan, and adjoining-property-owner notice requirements all take real preparation time before you're even ready to schedule the hearing itself. A host who starts this process the week before a planned launch date is setting themselves up for a delay, not a fast approval.

The annual inspection requirement also means this isn't a one-time filing you complete and forget. Budget for that recurring $150 inspection fee as an ongoing cost of legally operating, alongside the transient-tax and occupational-tax obligations described above, rather than treating the initial $695 application stack as the full lifetime cost of compliance.

A useful way to think about the timeline: treat the pre-application meeting as the actual start of your launch clock, not the day you first hear about the CUP requirement. Gathering a site plan and floor plan, and preparing the adjoining-owner notice list, are tasks worth starting well before you'd otherwise think to, since they're the steps most likely to add unplanned weeks if left until the hearing is already on the calendar.

What to Bring to the Pre-Application Meeting

Based on this research, the pre-application meeting is the JCCPC's first real touchpoint with your project, and coming prepared shortens everything that follows. A basic site plan showing the property's layout, a floor plan of the space you intend to operate as a short-term rental, and a clear statement of which tier, Type 1, Type 2, or the more restricted Type 3, you believe applies to your situation are the baseline materials worth having ready, though this research didn't confirm an exhaustive, official checklist beyond these core items.

The JCCPC's own current intake requirements should be confirmed directly rather than assumed from this research alone. What's worth internalizing regardless of the exact checklist is the posture: this is a genuine planning review, and arriving with organized, honest materials, including a realistic read on your own zoning district, tends to move the process forward faster than arriving underprepared and filling in gaps as they're discovered during the review itself.

It's also worth bringing a specific, honest answer to the question of who will actually be present at the property, since the owner-occupancy distinction between Type 1, Type 2, and the more restricted Type 3 tier turns directly on this fact. A vague or evolving answer at the pre-application stage is more likely to slow the review than a clear, accurate one stated upfront, even if that accurate answer points toward a more restrictive tier than you'd hoped for going in.

Bring a calendar with real dates in mind for your intended launch, but hold that timeline loosely rather than treating it as fixed. A host who arrives at the pre-application meeting having already committed to furniture deliveries or a marketing launch date built around an assumed fast approval is setting themselves up for a conflict if the actual review takes longer than hoped, which this research suggests is the more realistic outcome to plan around from the very start. Build in a buffer of several extra weeks beyond whatever timeline the JCCPC first suggests, rather than treating that early estimate as a firm, binding guarantee carved in stone.

It's also worth arriving with a realistic answer for how you'll use the property day to day, not just a general intent to rent it short-term. The tier you believe applies, the zoning district your address sits in, and the honest owner-occupancy answer described above all connect directly to how the space will actually function, and a reviewer is better positioned to help you when your description of the property's intended use is specific and consistent, rather than vague enough to shift depending on which tier turns out to be more favorable.

The Ongoing Costs Beyond the Initial CUP

The $445 CUP hearing stack covers the initial approval, but it isn't the only fee in this process. A change-of-use filing runs $100, relevant if a property's zoning use classification needs to shift before the CUP can be granted. An annual inspection fee of $150 applies on top of that, an ongoing cost that continues every year the rental operates, not a one-time setup charge.

For a Type 3 property specifically, the 400-foot spacing requirement in A-1 zoning is worth flagging as an area where the application form may lag behind the actual ordinance language, meaning a host filing under Type 3 should confirm current form requirements directly with the planning office rather than assuming an older form reflects the current rule.

On the tax side, the local Transient Room Tax runs 3 percent, layered on top of the state's combined 7 percent, for a total of 10 percent collected from guests. Building all of these, the initial $445, the $150 annual inspection, and the ongoing 10 percent tax collection, into a single first-year and ongoing cost picture gives a more complete budget than focusing on the CUP fee alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Bardstown issue a short-term rental license?

No. Bardstown requires a Conditional Use Permit, approved by the Board of Adjustment through the Joint City-County Planning Commission of Nelson County, rather than a simple license or registration. This is a genuine land-use review process with a pre-application step, a site plan, a floor plan, and a public hearing, not a form-and-fee transaction. Confirm current requirements directly with the JCCPC before applying.

How much does the CUP process actually cost?

Based on JCCPC's published materials, the base stack runs $445 for the CUP application, $100 for a change-of-use fee, and $150 for an annual inspection, totaling $695 before furnishing. If a special Board of Adjustment hearing is required, that can add roughly $1,500 more, pushing the realistic range above $2,000 in some cases. Confirm the current fee schedule directly with the JCCPC, since fees can be revised.

What's the difference between Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3 permits?

Type 1 covers an owner-occupied principal dwelling and Type 2 an owner-occupied accessory unit; both require the owner to physically live on the property and are allowed across most residential, agricultural, and P-1/B-1 commercial zones. Type 3, for non-owner-occupied units, is far more restricted, limited to the A-1 agricultural zone or a small number of units in P-1/B-1 commercial zoning. Confirm your specific tier directly with the JCCPC.

Can I skip the CUP process if I only rent for stays of 30 days or longer?

No, based on this research. A stay of 30 consecutive days still falls under short-term rental rules and still requires the CUP; there's no documented exemption that removes a property from the permit process based on stay length alone. Confirm this directly with the JCCPC before building a business plan around an extended-stay workaround, since this research found no such carve-out in the current ordinance.

What's the occupancy cap on a Bardstown short-term rental?

Two guests per bedroom across all permit tiers, though the Board of Adjustment can restrict that further on a case-by-case basis during your hearing. Don't assume the two-per-bedroom figure is guaranteed for your specific property; it's a ceiling the board has discretion to lower. Confirm your property's actual approved occupancy directly with the JCCPC.

What taxes apply to a Bardstown short-term rental?

This research found a combined local and state transient-tax burden of roughly 10 percent, made up of a 3 percent local transient room tax, 6 percent state sales tax, and 1 percent state transient tax. There's also a separate city occupational tax calculated as 1 percent of net profits, distinct from the transient-tax stack. Confirm current rates directly with the city's finance office before setting pricing.

Is there currently a moratorium on new CUP applications in Bardstown?

Based on this research, any prior moratorium on new applications has expired, meaning new CUP applications are currently being accepted. Confirm this status directly with the JCCPC at the time you apply, since moratorium status is the kind of thing that can change between this research pass and your actual filing date, and relying on stale information here carries real cost.

Do I need a separate permit if my property is in Nelson County but outside Bardstown's city limits?

Yes. Nelson County requires its own separate overlay permit for short-term rentals operating outside Bardstown's city boundary, distinct from the city CUP process described in this piece. Confirm which jurisdiction actually governs your specific address, since a county property does not use the city's CUP file at all, and assuming otherwise risks operating without the correct permit in place.

How long does the whole CUP process typically take?

This research didn't confirm an exact published timeline, but because it involves a pre-application meeting, a site plan, a floor plan, adjoining-owner notice, and a public hearing before the Board of Adjustment, it's realistic to plan for a multi-week process rather than a same-week approval. Start well ahead of any planned launch date, and confirm a current expected timeline directly with the JCCPC before setting one for yourself.

Is the annual inspection a one-time cost or ongoing?

Ongoing. The $150 inspection fee recurs annually as a condition of continuing to operate legally, alongside your transient-tax and occupational-tax obligations. Budget for it as a recurring cost of compliance, not a one-time fee folded into the initial $695 application stack, since it's a separate, repeating line item you'll see again every year you operate.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Bardstown's Conditional Use Permit is a land-use review with a public hearing, not a same-day STR registration. Understanding the tiers and the fee stack before you file saves real weeks.

Once your CUP status is confirmed, let's build the listing and marketing around a property that's actually cleared to operate. We'll help position your Bardstown stay honestly, from photos to copy, once the compliance side is settled.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.