For Fifth Time, Nantucket Voters Reject Short-Term Rental Zoning Bylaw Amendments

9/25/2024

Voters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, have opposed short-term rental bylaw amendments for the fifth time in four years. One proposal from the Select Board and a group of citizens would have limited short-term rentals and written them into the Nantucket zoning code as an allowed use in all residential districts. The second proposal from island resident Charity Benz and the Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First group would have allowed short-term rentals as an accessory use, which meant a property owner would have to use their property as their primary residence more days than they rented it. The first proposal aimed to appease residents by striking a short-term limitation compromise to reduce "unlimited turnover" of vacation rentals and disruptions of neighborhoods while stopping the conversion of year-round housing into short-term rentals. Short-term rentals would have been limited to one existing rental property per person, with eight changes of occupancy during the peak summer of July and August, and unlimited rental contracts outside of those months. The second proposal, which was modeled on a bylaw amendment adopted by West Tisbury and ratified by the state attorney general's office in August, would have imposed 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. Article 4, a third zoning bylaw amendment for short-term rentals, was also defeated. The voters did approve Article 5, a general bylaw amendment sponsored by island resident Pamela Perun that tightened the language of the portion of Chapter 123 of the town code that restricts corporate ownership of short-term rentals. It added partnerships and real estate investment trusts to the types of entities prohibited from operating short-term rentals.

Nantucket Current (09/17/24) Jason Graziadei