Town Will Appeal State Land Court Ruling In Short-Term Rental Lawsuit

Hours after the members of the Select Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals emerged from a closed-door executive session on Tuesday, the town announced that it will appeal the Massachusetts Land Court's decision in the closely-watched short-term rental lawsuit brought by Silver Street resident Cathy Ward against her neighbors, Peter and Linda Grape.

Judge Michael Vhay's decision, which he issued last Friday, vacated the ZBA's Sept. 2024 decision that the Grapes' short-term rentals were permissible under Nantucket's zoning bylaw and remanded the case for further consideration. But Vhay went further by declaring "the current Nantucket Zoning Bylaw does not allow rentals shorter than 31 days of 'primary dwellings' in the Nantucket Residential Old Historic district, except for 'the rental of rooms within an owner-occupied dwelling unit'."

The ruling means short-term rentals under 31 days in the residential old historic (ROH) zoning district are prohibited unless the owner lives in the home and only rents rooms, rather than the whole house. While the ruling applies only to the ROH zoning district, it could set a precedent for other residential zoning districts on the island, although those cases would need to be litigated. 

"The Boards met jointly in executive session on June 10, 2025, and voted unanimously to seek appellate review of the decision," the town stated in its announcement on Tuesday. "The Select Board will issue further updates on significant developments as they occur."

Nantucket Planning Board chair David Iverson told the Current last week that town counsel John Giorgio had repeatedly advised that if the town received an adverse ruling in the case, it could file an appeal to forestall the immediate impacts of the decision on rental contracts already signed for this summer.

While the town opted not to appeal Judge Vhay's initial ruling in the case in March 2024, his decision last week went far beyond the conclusions in his first decision, likely prompting the town to take action on Tuesday.

The ruling marks the latest chapter in a years-long saga over the legality of short-term rentals on Nantucket because they are not expressly allowed in the island's zoning code, even though property owners have been renting their homes to vacationers for a century or more.

For the past five years, Nantucket government officials and citizens had attempted to end the legal limbo and neighbor vs. neighbor lawsuits by sponsoring warrant articles to codify short-term rentals in Nantucket's zoning code. But Town Meeting voters rejected such proposals six times. During the most recent Town Meeting in May, the latest attempt received majority support but did not reach the two-thirds majority threshold for passage, as Article 66 failed on a vote of 468 in favor and 321 opposed.