Déjà Vu All Over Again: Short-Term Rentals On Center Stage Again At Tuesday's Special Town Meeting
Jason Graziadei •
It's déjà vu all over again for Nantucket's voters headed to Tuesday's Special Town Meeting, where the debate over short-term rentals is once again expected to dominate the discussion.
The island's legislative body has taken up numerous measures to regulate or restrict short-term rentals over the past four years. Most have not passed, and the attempts to codify short-term rentals into Nantucket's zoning code to end litigation and clarify the legal limbo have all been rejected.
On Tuesday, voters will once again be asked to approve zoning bylaw amendments, including the first two articles up for debate which are competing proposals for how to regulate short-term rentals on Nantucket. Both will require a two-thirds majority vote of those in attendance - a high bar for passage that has proven elusive for those seeking a resolution to the years-long debate over vacation rentals on the island.
Article 1 - which has been described by supporters as a compromise proposal - is a zoning bylaw amendment that was drafted by the Select Board and a group of citizens that had put forward competing petitions in the run-up to the deadline to submit warrant articles for the Special Town Meeting. The compromise article's language came together over the summer.
The proposal - which has since earned the endorsement of the Select Board, Planning Board, and Finance Committee - attempts to thread the needle by implementing restrictions that proponents believe will reduce "unlimited turnover" and disruptions of neighborhoods, while stopping the conversion of year-round housing into short-term rentals. It would do so by limiting existing short-term rentals to one rental property per person, with eight changes of occupancy during the peak summer months of July and August. It would restrict new short-term rentals to three rental contracts during those months for the first five years of ownership. Existing short-term rentals transferred within families through inheritance or divorce would not be subject to the three-contract restriction during July and August.
Under Article 1, short-term rentals would be written into the town's zoning bylaw as a primary use allowed in all zoning districts by creating a new "Nantucket Vacation Rental" category that would be required to abide by all of the town's existing rules for short-term rentals (including the new registry) as well those created in Article 1.
It would also address owners of multiple short-term rental properties by sunsetting that ability at eight years following the passage of the bylaw, after which they would be limited to one STR lot per person.
Short-term rentals would be prohibited in tertiary dwellings, interval-ownership dwellings, affordable/workforce housing projects, covenant housing, and newly constructed apartments, in order to stop "investor-only STRs in these unique neighborhoods."
"Article one represents a true compromise," Nantucket Planning Board chair David Iverson said. "Is it perfect? No. Does it make everyone happy? No. Is it the best opportunity to regulate STRs in a meaningful way? Yes."
Article 2 is a competing zoning bylaw amendment put forward by island resident Charity Benz and the political action group Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First (PNNF) which is seeking tighter restrictions on short-term rentals. It focuses on codifying short-term rentals as a so-called accessory use in the town's zoning code, meaning it is used more as a primary residence of the owner more than it is used as a short-term rental. The original article - which earned a "take no action" recommendation from the Planning Board and Finance Committee - has since been revised by PNNF, which will be issuing a new, positive motion on the article at Tuesday's Special Town Meeting.
The revised proposal includes a 30-day residential requirement for any short-term rental operator, mandating that the owner spend at least a month at their island property each year for it to be eligible for it to be rented. That requirement is modeled on a recent bylaw amendment approved by the town of West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard, and ratified by the state attorney general's office last month.
Under the PNNF proposal, any property in a residential district could be used as an "accessory short-term rental" as long as it rented "for at least one day
less than the lot is occupied by the owner or immediate family member in that calendar year."
"The changes to the original Article 2 were the result of developments over the course of the four months since Annual Town Meeting and other major events," the PNNF group said in a statement, adding that the Town Meeting moderator Sarah Alger had determined the revised proposal was within the scope of the original motion and will be allowed to be offered on Tuesday.
Article 2 has earned the endorsement of both the political action group ACK Now - which has spear-headed efforts to restrict short-term rentals on Nantucket since 2021 - as well as the Nantucket Land & Water Council (NLWC). Peter McCausland, the founder of ACK Now who also sits on the Board of Directors of the NLWC, offered his endorsement of the new positive motion on Article 2.
"It has a 30 non-consecutive day residency requirement and an owner can short-term rent as much as she wants as long as it is one day less than her occupancy - that is the true Nantucket tradition," McCausland said. "Article 2 is the real compromise article. It sets clear boundaries for short-term rentals as an accessory use with an A in the use chart as envisioned when zoning was enacted 50 years ago. The pro-investor STR people are looking for more extraction from Nantucket. We have to consider what our unique and beautiful community will look like in 10 and 20 years if we don’t stop this commercialization."
Other notable articles at Tuesday's Special Town Meeting include:
Article 8: An expansion of the town's so-called demolition delay bylaw. The citizen's petition - put forward by Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman - would extend the period property owners are required to wait for would-be movers to claim buildings that would otherwise be destroyed before beginning demolition. Nantucket’s existing “demolition delay” bylaw established a waiting period during which the town and the applicant can propose and consider alternatives to the demolition of a building of residential value. It is intended to minimize the quantity of demolition debris ending up in the landfill, create an incentive for the reuse of residential structures, and give interested parties an opportunity to acquire reusable residential structures.
Article 11-14: Proposed zoning changes for a community housing project at a former junkyard property. The citizen articles - put forward by Stephen Maury - would allow a proposed attainable housing development on Woodland Drive but have received negative recommendations from the Select Board, Finance Committee, Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission, and Planning Board. The articles would change the zoning at 13 and 13a Woodland Drive to allow for greater density and alter the sewer map to facilitate the housing plan. Read Maury's recent letter to the editor arguing in favor of the warrant articles.
Article 16: A citizen petition to implement reforms to the makeup of the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission put forward by Hillary Hedges Rayport. Read her proposal by clicking here.
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING LINKS:
Special Town Meeting warrant with Finance Committee recommendations