What's next for short-term rentals?

(May 16, 2024) As the dust settles from last week’s Town Meeting vote and a recent Land Court ruling, questions abound about what it all will mean for short-term rentals during this summer season.

As of now it appears that the town does not plan to do any enforcement based on either the Land Court ruling or the new ban on corporate ownership of short-term rentals with no legacy exemption, at least through the summer.

Citizens are free to file complaints to the ZBA if they feel a home is being used exclusively or primarily as an STR. But given that the Zoning Board of Appeals hasn’t yet ruled on the case which was remanded back to it by a Land Court judge, it’s unlikely the board would rule on any additional STRs in a timeframe that would exclude them for the summer.

Town counsel John Giorgio said on the floor of Town Meeting there was no reason to believe that this year’s summer rentals are in jeopardy.

“There is nothing in the (Land Court’s) decision that would require anyone to cancel an existing rental contract,” he said.

Part of the reason is an expected Special Town Meeting in September, dedicated to short-term rental regulation. Select Board chair Dawn Holdgate said she hopes that will lead to more clarity on the issue.

“You could have someone file a complaint, but I think that everyone recognizes that we’re still trying to work it out as a community,” she said. “So, it’s slightly unknown, but in my conversations with people, I don’t think that other entities are going to really try and push the issue with lawsuits this year.”

Island attorney Arthur Reade did say, however, that there was nothing preventing people from filing STR complaints to the town and Land Court this season if they believe an STR is being used as the primary use of a home.

Asked yesterday about the issue, Giorgio said he has no change to the statements that he made at Town Meeting and believes that it’s unlikely that any complaints filed against an STR would be resolved by the end of the summer.

Kathy Baird, one of the founders of the pro-STR group Nantucket Together, said the lack of clarity is challenging for renters, and has recommended that they seek out their own legal counsel for their specific cases.

“Depending on which lawyer you ask, you get a different answer,” Baird said. “If you are doing an STR and it’s out of your own home, and you live there, then clearly, you’re safe. Those folks, islanders, are safe, but anybody who doesn’t live full-time in their primary residence, which is 90 percent (of STR owners) who knows?”

The Land Court ruling requires the Nantucket’s Zoning Board of Appeals to make a determination on whether the specific property in that case is a primary or accessory use STR. That determination would be the first time the town will have to make that decision. But that is not expected to happen soon. The ZBA opened the hearing on the matter two weeks ago but has continued the matter until June 3 at the request of the parties involved.

The hearing is a process that could take weeks if not months to resolve, and could run well into the summer if not the fall.

Holdgate said it’s important for voters to make a determination on what constitutes primary and accessory use. Because the ZBA’s purview is on a specific case, it would be too much to ask them to rule on the issue on a case-by-case basis, she said.

Holdgate also said she is also beginning to hear concerns that visitors might start to feel unwelcome on Nantucket, given the spotlight now on the short-term rental.

“With all of this being in the press, all this turmoil, are we starting to feel like an unwelcome spot to vacation to outsiders,” she said. “When you go on vacation you want to be in a place that’s welcoming.”

Article 60, which passed at Town Meeting, originally allowed for legacy protection for all corporate-owned STRs already in existence. But former Select Board member Bruce Miller proposed an amendment to that article which took away the legacy protection for existing corporate-owned short-term rentals, effectively banning even those currently in existence. That motion was passed by an overwhelming vote of 931-206.

Susan Lazarus, property manager for The Copley Group’s Nantucket properties, said the company, which operates more than a dozen shortterm rentals on the island, did not have a comment on the situation. But she did note that the Copley Group’s Nantucket properties are owned by the Levenson family. Norman Levenson is the president and CEO of The Copley Group.

It highlights the challenges brought up at Town Meeting in defining exactly what corporations would be banned from short-term renting and which would be allowed. According to the article that passed, limited liability corporations owned by “real persons” would be allowed to short-term rent properties.

“I’m against this because of the loopholes,” Select Board member Matt Fee said of Article 60. “There are details that have to be sorted out for a Special Town Meeting in the fall.”