Restore Zoning to Safeguard Nantucket’s Seasonal Economy

To the editor: It sounds unbelievable: renting vacation homes on Nantucket found to be illegal in 2025 because of an inadvertent zoning omission? Year-round rentals aren’t properly included in the zoning code either? Absurd for a place where generations of Nantucket residents and summer families have been sharing their homes with visitors for over 150 years. I’ve got a photo my great-great grandmother took of the furnished rental cottage she leased on Hulbert Ave in July 1906, a few blocks from where we live now.

When Massachusetts first implemented Statewide Zoning Codes in 1972, Nantucket’s did contain both long- and short-term renting uses. And in 2013, Nantucket successfully petitioned to have our National Heritage Landmark protections extend beyond the 18th-century Whaling Era to include our 20th-century Seaside Resort Era, which explicitly recognizes our cultural landscape, economic history, and resort tradition as historically significant— including the community’s tradition of private rentals of cottages and homes. In fact, Nantucket Island is the only National Historic Landmark District that explicitly includes a historically unique model of private vacation home rentals in our continuously practiced resort culture. Local and Seasonal Residents alike have been renting their dwellings for over 150 years, all across the island, and some have done it as a business like Underhill did in 19th-century ‘Sconset.

So how could it possibly happen that Nantucket’s “STRs” (as the modern era calls them) suddenly are deemed illegal in 2025 by the Land Court if they are protected by a prestigious National Heritage Landmark designation that brings tremendous value to all properties and businesses here? After all, “STRs” account for approximately 92 percent of all Nantucket’s visitor accommodations.

The answer lies in a very simple zoning oversight made in 2015 during a Planning Department “Technical Clean-up Article” at the end of an Annual Town Meeting. A crucial clause explicitly protecting all “renting” and “leasing” was removed inadvertently and was recently acknowledged by Town Counsel in a legal brief to the Land Court. It recognized that this omission has unintentionally caused substantial legal confusion, uncertainty, and threatening economic hardship to Nantucket.

Unfortunately, a political action committee started by a summer resident was using this zoning loophole to try to reduce the main accommodations available to our tourist trade. Regardless of differing viewpoints, the broader conversation sparked by Peter McCausland and his political advocacy group Ack•Now does underscore the critical importance of accurate zoning language. Their well-intentioned ‘Lease to Locals’ initiative was a bellwether of Nantucket’s 2024 designation as a Seasonal Community, providing a useful tool to help keep Nantucket authentically itself after so many year-round homes were purchased for seasonal use only during the pandemic. However, with the recent acknowledgement that the town’s zoning omission was inadvertent, we hope Ack•Now sees fit to drop the loophole lawsuit against the Town and the Grapes so as to allow the legislative body of Town Meeting to finally be able to handle its zoning business democratically instead of through the Courts. Otherwise, we’ll be denying zoning for a protected part of our National Historic Landmark, and do damage to the island economy according to Town Counsel on 7/18/25.

Since implementing the short-term rental tax in 2019, Nantucket has generated tens of millions of dollars in “STR” revenue, accounting for over 10 percent of the town’s annual budget. Without these charming, culturally authentic accommodations, Nantucket will not have enough room even for local family celebrations, weddings, or reunions. Because Town Meeting put a moratorium on more hotels in 1980, it leaves us only 980 hotel rooms, far below what’s needed to accommodate the thousands of visitors each season.

Unfortunately, a significant 27 percent drop in short-term rental tax revenue during the summer of 2024 highlights the economic vulnerabilities caused by this ongoing zoning uncertainty of the last five years culminating in the June 2025 Land Court ruling.

The solution being advocated by a large group of citizens following the very narrow miss of Article 66 in May 2025 is straightforward. It does not seek to expand property owners’ rights or introduce new, uncontrolled rental practices. Instead, it simply aims to restore clarity to zoning regulations by reinstating the original language mistakenly omitted in 2015. A historically appropriate solution that ensures property owners retain the rights they traditionally and responsibly exercised, now with the four general bylaws added with the advocacy of ack•now to regulate “STR” usage post-Pandemic.

Unlike recent short-term rental debates in some mainland communities facing disruptive growth, Nantucket’s rental culture is deeply rooted, establishing overall a balanced and sustainable rhythm. Indeed, Nantucket presaged modern rental platforms such as Airbnb, given the island’s longstanding practice of welcoming visitors into privately owned homes that were integrated into all neighborhoods developed as part of the Resort since the 1870s.

Certainly, the pandemic years introduced some challenges here, particularly from newer homeowners unfamiliar with established community norms. But people who move here do so with the knowledge that it is a seasonal heritage resort community, and that comes with pluses and minuses. Our tradition relies on generational continuity— but also on a community open to summer families, short-term welcome, and seasonal movement to the island and flexible use of properties. We also agree with the advocates for increased enforcement of “STR” regulations by the Town.

Summer residents, even if not voting locally, have historically influenced important community outcomes. So, your voices are important too in resolving this critical issue. By speaking openly with neighbors, engaging town officials, and expressing your support publicly, you can represent a vital part of this community that’s been largely silent up until now.

Meanwhile, the timely action by over 200 signatories are responding to this zoning emergency and demonstrates the urgency and collective resolve to take our sovereignty back from the Massachusetts Land Court. We will help secure the island’s longstanding cultural and economic practices, safeguarding the welcoming and vibrant community mix that generations have cherished. Together, we can rectify this zoning oversight, ensuring Nantucket continues to thrive as a unique historical destination for generations to come. We all look forward to regaining the peace which existed before the zoning omission and loophole lawsuits.

Caroline Robinson Baltzer