ACK Now-Funded Survey Finds 70 Percent Want Some Short-Term Rental Restrictions

Seventy percent of Nantucket residents favor at least some restrictions on short-term rentals, while only 25 percent believe they should be unrestricted, according to an Emerson College survey funded by political action group ACK•Now.

There is a significant gap in support for short-term rental (STR) restrictions by income level, with 90 percent of islanders making less than $75,000 supporting restrictions, as compared to only 53 percent of islanders making over $150,000. The survey also found that just under two-thirds of residents believe STRs stress each of Nantucket’s infrastructure, environment, and public services.

Representatives of ACK•Now, which has spearheaded the opposition to STRs for years, have attempted to frame the results as suggesting the majority of Nantucket voters oppose the compromise STR bylaw that emerged from a Select Board subcommittee last month, as the bylaw allows STRs by right across the island.

“These survey results show that an overwhelming majority of people want to restrict STRs due to their impact on the housing crisis, infrastructure, environment and public services,” ACK•Now Board of Directors Chair Carl Jelleme said. “Therefore, I hope these findings will help persuade more people to thwart this fifth attempt at commercializing STRs at the Special Town Meeting.”

However, the survey did not ask voters to weigh in on the compromise. The compromise bylaw also does not propose to leave STRs unrestricted. If passed, it would limit STR operators to renting buildings on a single lot and ban STRs in tertiary dwellings, affordable housing, workforce housing and covenant housing. It would also limit STR operators to eight changes of occupancy during the months of July and August. New STR operators would be limited to three changes of occupancy in July and August for five years, at which point they would be allowed eight. While achieving two-thirds support for any STR-related bylaw will be difficult, Emerson College’s survey provides no insight into the public perception of the article facing voters this fall, as it only asks whether voters support any restrictions on STRs, not what those restrictions should be.

“As part of the STR Working Group and a supporter of the goals of the STR Subcommittee, we have supported reasonable regulations on STRs in proposed citizen's and town-sponsored articles but only the most minimal restrictions have been passed by the voters,” Kathy Baird, president of the pro-STR political action group Nantucket Together, said. “None of the ACK-Now proposed articles have been passed.”

Short-term rental proponents have also raised concerns with the poll’s neutrality and question wording.

“The questions all use the same gaslighting phrases that ACK Now has drummed into everyone's heads and those phrases are never defined or backed up with statistics or facts,” Nantucket Together President Kathy Baird said. “The survey is not designed to elicit useful information but instead is designed to influence voters with misleading and undefined terminology and questionably stated and implied conclusions.”

Emerson College also polled the favorability of the Select Board, offering a rare quantitative look at voters’ perceptions of the island’s most important elected board. Only 23 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the Select Board, while 51 percent had an unfavorable view and fully 26 percent were neutral or unsure. ACK•Now’s own favorability rating was positive, with 34 percent of respondents expressing a positive view of the organization and only 20 percent rating it unfavorably.

The credibility level for the poll, comparable to its margin of error, is 6.1 percent, meaning that all numbers should be interpreted as estimates of actual numbers that are likely to fall within roughly 6 percent of the survey’s results. Subsamples, such as the data showing support for restrictions by income level, have considerably higher margins of error.