State Judge Rules Against Nantucket in STR Lawsuit

6/9/2025

A Massachusetts Land Court judge has ruled against the town of Nantucket and a local short-term rental operator on two of three counts in a lawsuit brought by a resident against her neighbors and the Nantucket Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Judge Michael Vhay vacated the ZBA's September 2024 decision that operator's rentals were permissible under Nantucket's zoning bylaw and remanded the case for further consideration. Vhay ruled that "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'." A third count in the lawsuit, in which the plaintiff asked the court for a so-called "writ of mandamus" directing the town to enforce the bylaw against the operator's rentals, was dismissed.

Nantucket Current (06/06/25) Jason Graziadei