Bid To Nullify Nantucket's Vote Legalizing Short-Term Rentals Submitted To Attorney General
Jason Graziadei •
Just one month after Nantucket legalized short-term rentals by codifying them into the island's zoning code, a bid to nullify that vote at last month's Special Town Meeting has emerged.
In a six-page letter obtained by the Current, attorney Nina Pickering-Cook urges the Massachusetts Attorney General to disapprove Article 1, the zoning bylaw amendment that was passed with a two-thirds majority vote by island voters on Nov. 5th. Pickering-Cook, who has previously represented the political action group ACK Now as well as Silver Street resident Cathy Ward in her short-term rental lawsuit, opened her letter by stating that she was making the request "on behalf of my client, a resident of Nantucket and Town Meeting voter." The identity of her client is not revealed in the letter.
The state Attorney General's office must approve the legality of all local bylaws approved by town meetings across Massachusetts before they can take effect.
"We understand that it is an extraordinary step for the MLU (Municipal Law Unit) to deny approval of a locally-adopted bylaw," Pickering-Cook wrote in the Dec. 15th letter to Kelli Gunagan, an assistant attorney general who serves as the director of the office's municipal law unit. "Nonetheless, there is a clear case for it here."
During the November Special Town Meeting, Article 1, which would legalize short-term rentals (STRs) by right across Nantucket in all zoning districts except the commercial-industrial zones, was passed by a vote of 1,045 - 421. It cleared the two-thirds threshold needed for adoption with 71 percent support. The passage of Article 1 was the culmination of a divisive five-year debate over whether to restrict short-term rentals, and essentially kills existing legal challenges of STRs on Nantucket.
But in her letter to the state Attorney General, Pickering-Cook argues that the vote on Article 1 at the Special Town Meeting violated a state law that prohibits a zoning bylaw that was previously defeated by voters from coming back to a town meeting for two years.
Massachusetts General Law C. 40A, § 5, reads: "No proposed zoning ordinance or by-law which has been unfavorably acted upon by a city council or town meeting shall be considered by the city council or town meeting within two years after the date of such unfavorable action unless the adoption of such proposed ordinance or by-law is recommended in the final report of the planning board."
Pickering-Cook wrote that "Article 1 was proposed on the heels of years of public debate over the legality of so-called 'short-term rentals', or residential rentals of 31 days or less, under the current Nantucket Zoning Bylaw. The Town’s refusal to enforce its Bylaw, which does not otherwise allow STRs in residential zones, kicked off three lawsuits and nearly 20 articles presented to Nantucket Town Meeting to amend the Bylaw to allow such rentals to varying extents. At Nantucket’s 2024 Annual Town Meeting, 2024 Special Town Meeting, and 2025 Annual Town Meeting, the Town voted on nearly identical articles to do just that. Each time, the amendments failed to pass. However, at this past November’s Special Town Meeting, the Town Meeting once again voted on an amendment that would legalize STRs in all but one zoning district on the island. This time, the amendment passed. Under the clear language of G.L. c. 40A § 5, this cannot stand."
Read the full letter from Pickering-Cook to the Attorney General by clicking here
The Current received the letter from a Planning Board member late Tuesday night, who stated "there is no way this will pass muster," and that town counsel John Giorgio was reviewing its contents. In the run-up to the November Special Town Meeting, Giorgio reviewed Article 1, sponsored by charter boat captain Brian Borgeson, and deemed it legally valid, finding it substantially different from its predecessors.
Select Board member Matt Fee specifically asked about the two-year bar outlined in state law, and Giorgio submitted a full brief on the topic in October.
"In my opinion, the pending citizen warrant article under Article 1 does not constitute a repetitive zoning petition for two reasons and I have so informed the Moderator of my opinion," Giorgio wrote. "The reasons for this opinion are (1) the Planning Board recommended favorable action on Article 66 of the May 2025 Annual Town Meeting; and (2) Article 1, although similar in many respects to Article 66, is of a different character than what was proposed in Article 66...By expressly allowing both long-term and short-term rentals in the definition of principal uses, Article 1, in my opinion, does not share the same fundamental or essential character as Article 66. Undoubtedly, if Article 1 is approved, the zoning bylaw will be amended in ways that were not contemplated by Town Meeting when Article 66 was considered."
Borgeson, the sponsor of Article 1, told the Current Tuesday night that he believed ACK Now was behind the effort to nullify the vote due to Pickering-Cook's previous affiliation with the political action group that has been working to regulate and restrict short-term rentals on Nantucket for the past five years.
"I absolutely believe ACK Now is behind it," Borgeson said. "Pickering-Cook is the attorney who wrote the appeal and they have been the puppet for the ACK Now lawsuits, including the Ward one that has been going on for six years. Looks like 'winding down' means more litigation. Very disappointing. When a massive overwhelming amount of citizens vote within the system to accept this article and you just can’t handle the outcome you revert to name-calling and talk of foul play. The last seven years of gaslighting have been totally disruptive and downright mean to many of the citizens of Nantucket who actually live here. The island voted."
Early Friday morning, Pickering-Cook confirmed to the Current that she had sent the letter, but declined to reveal the identity of her client.
"My client wishes to remain anonymous," Pickering-Cook said. "I can state that I am not working on behalf of ACK Now, nor anyone affiliated with ACK Now. Nor are my legal fees being paid by ACK Now."
Her letter to the attorney general argues that previous attempts to codify short-term rentals in Nantucket's zoning code - specifically Steven Cohen’s Article 59 from the May 2024 Annual Town Meeting, the Select Board’s Article 1 from the September 2024 Special Town Meeting, and Caroline Baltzer’s Article 66 from the May 2025 Annual Town Meeting - were all defeated and fundamentally the same as Article 1 that passed in November.
"Perhaps most importantly, the whole purpose behind each of the articles is identical: to legalize STRs on Nantucket," she wrote.
Pickering-Cook also pointed out that the Nantucket Planning Board did not vote to support Article 1 during its final deliberation in October, fulfilling another aspect of the state law that prohibits bringing back a defeated zoning bylaw to Town Meeting within two years. The Planning Board voted 3-2 on Oct. 9 to take no action on Article 1, opting instead to support chair Dave Iverson's competing proposal that would have restricted short-term rentals on Nantucket.
The two-year bar in the state law "prevents a type of zoning by attrition, where a particularly vehement coalition - in this case, the coalition of realtors and Short-Term Rental investors - that have the resources to continue to raise an issue at consecutive town meetings, do so, wearing voters down over time and drowning out the already-expressed will of the Town’s legislative body to disapprove of such a change," Pickering-Cook wrote. "This kind of protection is particularly important in a seasonal community like Nantucket, where public debate over the issue may be quieter during the off season, and thus an article granting investors carte-blanche to short-term rent could more easily sneak under the radar of voters who likely already thought the proposal was voted down at the previous two town meetings. Surely, this kind of sleight-of-hand, pushed forward by moneyed interests looking out for real estate investments over the protection of residential housing, is just the type of zoning article the two-year bar prevents."
This is a breaking news story and the Current will follow-up with more coverage this week, including responses from the various coalitions in the short-term rental debate and Nantucket's town counsel