Town To Award New Rental Car Medallions Amid Lawsuits And Controversy Over Turo

The Select Board is seeking to distribute eight rental car medallions to new agencies amid ongoing controversies over car rentals on Nantucket.

The Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to award the medallions to agencies that are not already operating on Nantucket, excluding potential operators who use the online car-sharing platform Turo to rent their personal vehicles. Board members disagreed about the potential impacts of the decision for long-term attempts to regulate Turo, making this the next step in a lengthy and convoluted series of debates over the San Francisco-based company often referred to as Airbnb for cars.

“If there's ever been an issue that I've been confused about more in my career, I don't know what it is,” town of Nantucket licensing administrator Amy Baxter said. “We have these eight medallions right now that are available, and we'd like to kind of work with that.”

Select Board vice chair Matt Fee worried that disqualifying Turo renters from receiving the medallions could give the impression that Turo rentals will be allowed on Nantucket, even without medallions. The discussions over how the town should address Turo car rentals on the island - if at all - have been simmering since 2023. 

“If this were going out to everyone...and we weren't differentiating, I would support it, but as it is now, I will not support it,” he said. “I believe it is setting the wrong precedent and heading us down a path of legalizing peer-to-peer, which I don't think the island can handle. I don't think our roads and our infrastructure can handle it.”

Other Select Board members, including Brooke Mohr and Tom Dixon, argued that Turo was a separate issue, and awarding the eight medallions to applicants planning more traditional rental agencies would not impact how Turo will be handled.

“The question of Turo and whether it is, in essence, not allowed under the bylaw, and if not, how we would enforce it, is a bigger conversation,” Mohr said.

“This is exactly where I thought we were going, as per our board discussions," Dixon said. “I don't think that by us coming up with a policy to give out the eight medallions, in a proper policy, that we set through licensing, really changes the ground that much. We're trying to get these eight unused medallions back into the community, back into the business community, so they can be utilized.”

The Select Board also discussed the broader issue of unused medallions, with Select Board member Malcolm MacNab suggesting more resolution is needed before the eight medallions the Select Board is able to award are distributed. But ultimately, Mohr, Dixon, and chair Dawn Hill Holdgate voted in favor of a staff recommendation to accept applications for medallions from new agencies selected from an existing waitlist.

Applications will be reviewed at a public hearing, and up to four agencies will receive the eight medallions.

The decision comes just over a year after an island couple sued the town and the Select Board in federal court over the rental car medallion system, which the suit described as discriminatory and protectionist. The couple, James Broad and Rebecca McCrensky, operated their business, Becky’s Broncos, without medallions, referencing Turo in their lawsuit.

Broad is listed on the Town’s rental vehicle medallion waiting list, though there are a number of other potential applicants listed before him, meaning he might not get the chance to apply for the available medallions.

Chapter 58 of Nantucket's town code governs rental cars on the island through a medallion system and caps the number of rentals at 700 for the entire island. The regulations require companies to obtain a medallion from the town for each rental car they operate and establish a fine of $300 per day for any violations. Only six licensed car rental agencies on Nantucket control the 700 medallions, preventing others from entering the market and, some believe, driving up the price to rent a car on the island as high as $800 per day.

The Nantucket rental car dispute became public in September 2023 when the Select Board first discussed a formal complaint regarding “illegal car rentals” from an attorney representing two of the island’s rental car businesses: Nantucket Rent-A-Car and Affordable Rentals. Attorney John Perten, who represented Nantucket Rent-A-Car and Affordable Rentals, submitted a list to the town of more than 150 individuals renting vehicles through Turo, along with the names of four small rental car companies, alleging they are all renting cars on Nantucket illegally without medallions.

Just days after the Select Board discussed the matter, the town began cracking down on the smaller rental car companies operating without medallions, including Becky's Broncos, with calls from the Nantucket Police Department ordering them to cease renting vehicles. On the advice of its attorneys, the town opted not to crack down on Turo operators.