Short-Term Rental Restrictions Fail on Nantucket - For Now

Nantucket's Town Meeting on May 6th considered a change to the zoning bylaw in order to regulate short-term rentals. This was the third time short-term rental regulation came before the voters at Town Meeting. The proposed rules (Article 60) would have restricted short-term rentals (STRs) to mainly accessory dwellings units (ADUs) in owner-occupied homes and for non-owner-occupied units the home would have to have been “used more often as a residence than an STR”. This would have allowed for long-term rentals in the same property (31 days and longer), or owner-residency for half the year and STRs for the other half of they year and would have prohibited “strictly commercial STR businesses in residential districts (i.e. no investor-owned properties that were rented exclusively as STRs).558 voted no on the article, with 378 voting yes, meaning 60% of the nearly 1,000 voters didn’t want the regulation. Zoning bylaw amendments require a 2/3 majority for approval.Those who support the change were mostly year-round residents who believe the large number of STRs is making it difficult for locals to find housing and that is “threatening our neighborhoods and local community”. That quote was from Emmy Kilvert, who sponsored the article.The successful opposition came from a coalition of the Nantucket Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), Nantucket Together (a group of part-time residents who operate their homes as STRs when they’re not using them) and The Copley Group (an investment group that operates a dozen STRs), according to an in-depth article in the Nantucket Current.Several speakers wanted voters to wait until the town’s Short-Term Rental Working Group (appointed at the 2022 Town Meeting)  finishes its recommendations later this year and brings them to a Special Town Meeting in November. To these voters, it seemed like the Article 60 crowd were trying to do an end-run around the committee the town had chosen the previous year.The anti-Article 60 coalition presented testimony that “seasonal owners provide accommodations for 95% of our visitors in the summer and pay 80% of our property taxes” that according to Penny Dey, NAREB President. The proposed article “does not create affordable year-round housing, it does not make it less crowded here in the summer…houses are built to be occupied… a residential use is just that: a residential use, whether they’re here for a month or days,” she concluded.Those in favor of Article 60 disputed the economic argument, saying “Nantucket is a community, not a commodity. Every time a home turns into a strictly short-term rental business, that’s one less home for the labor and delivery nurse who’s delivery our Nantucket natives.” This was from Allyson Mitchell, who is currently the town’s housing and real estate office manager, but who previously was a Property Manager for the Copley Group, the real estate investment group that owns many STRs on the island.