Special Town Meeting rejects short-term-rental regulations

Voters defeated Article 1 472-416, the Select Board's compromise proposal that opponents argued did not do enough to regulate STRs, after a little over an hour of debate.

They then rejected Article 2, put forth by the citizens' group Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First, that would have established a 30-day residential requirement for any STR operator, and allowed short-term rental of a property for one day less than the time it was used by the owner or the owner’s immediate family. 

The vote on Article 2 was 478-394 in favor, but both articles required a two-thirds majority to pass.

Voters then overwhelmingly shot down Article 4, Grant Sanders' proposal to limit new property owners only to one short-term rental property and three turnovers in July and August, while placing no new regulations on existing property owners.

Proponents said Article 1, which would have eventually allowed just one STR property per owner, eight rental contracts in July and August for existing STR properties and no limit on rental contracts in the offseason; and provided eight years of legacy protection for the owners of multiple short-term rentals, would put regulations on the books that discouraged investor-owned properties and took steps toward limiting rental turnovers.

Opponents of Article 2 said it went too far in regulating short-term rentals, infringed on personal property rights and would have been largely unenforceable.

Special Town Meeting was gaveled to order at 5 p.m. with seven proposals intended to regulate short-term vacation rentals up first.

The 17-article warrant also contained a number of other proposals, including a move by Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman to increase the amount of time homes must be offered to new owners before they can be demolished – which was not called for debate and passed by majority vote – and Hillary Hedges Rayport's slightly modified version of her initiative to change the makeup of the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission that is currently mired in committee at the state house in Boston after passing by one vote at last year's Annual Town Meeting.

Just under 900 voters were present in Nantucket High School at the start of the meeting.

Prior to beginning debate, they rejected a request by Finance Committee chair Denise Kronau that Article 2, which would more strictly regulate short-term rentals than Article 1, the compromise article backed by the drafters of two other STR-related articles and town officials, be voted upon first.

In other actions during Tuesday's nearly five-hour meeting:

• Voters approved 286-114 a proposal by former Historical Commission chair Hillary Hedges Rayport to change the makeup of the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission by adding several elected positions and appointed representatives of the Nantucket Land Bank and Historical Commission to the all-appointed body that currently includes all five members of the Planning Board; and establishing term limits.

• Voters defeated a pair of proposals by Stephen Maury to increase the zoning density and include in the town sewer district portions of the property at 13 and 13A Woodland Drive for the purpose of creating affordable housing for municipal and nonprofit employees.

• They also rejected a pair of proposals by Maury, on behalf of Clifford Williams, to increase the zoning density and include in the town sewer district property at 44 Skyline Drive for the purpose of creating affordable housing for municipal employees.

The discussion lasted nearly an hour, marked by accusations of NIMBYism countered by residents of the surrounding neighborhoods saying the increase in density of the proposed projects was far greater than the area should be asked to support, and questioning why the bulk of the island's affordable housing proposals have consistently fallen in the area around Nantucket Memorial Airport and Surfside Road.

• Voters wrapped up the short-term rental debate by approving 544-143 Article 5 by Pamela Perun, which will expand the definition of a corporation in regard to short-term rentals by including any organization that would be taxable as a corporation by the Internal Revenue Code.

• In discussing Article 1, voters 639-221 rejected an amendment by Jamie Howarth increasing from eight to nine the number of rental contracts allowed in July and August.

• Voters 672-173 also rejected an amendment by Linda Williams that would remove provisions providing those who own multiple short-term-rental properties legacy protection for eight years before their multiple ownership would be prohibited; and requiring that properties acquired after the bylaw goes into effect be limited to three changes in occupancy in July and August for the first five years of ownership.

• Voters 453-388 approved an amendment by Devin Murphy intended to allow the owners of existing fractional-ownership properties to rent those properties when they weren't occupying them themselves.

• Without being called, voters took no action on short-term-rental Articles 3,6 and 7.

Article 3 was island attorney Steven Cohen and real estate agent Stephen Maury's proposal to create a new definition, “Accessory Short-Term Rental,” in the zoning code and allow it in all districts except the Commercial and Industrial zone. Part of the definition of an accessory-use STR would be that it is rented for stays of less than 31 days, and rented more than 14 days total per year. In order to qualify as an Accessory Short-Term Rental, a property would only need to be rented for less than half of the calendar year.

Article 6, a companion bylaw to Article 3, submitted by Cohen, would have included limitations that STRs could have no more than nine rental contracts in July and August, and no person may hold more than two STR certificates of registration.

Article 7, proposed by Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First's Matthew Peel, would have dictated parameters for enforcement. It stated that the Board of Health would dedicate one employee whose primary job would be inspecting short-term rentals and ensuring compliance, and that STRs with multiple offenses in one calendar year would be subject to a review hearing in front of an STR committee.