Next stop, Town Meeting.
Assuming members of the select board approve its placement on the warrant, voters at this year’s Town Meeting will decide, again, if they want to legalize Short …
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Next stop, Town Meeting.
Assuming members of the select board approve its placement on the warrant, voters at this year’s Town Meeting will decide, again, if they want to legalize Short Term Rentals (STRs) in Westport.
STRs, defined by the commonwealth as any rentals of 30 days or less, are a long-standing part of Westport’s culture and are an essential part of many property owners’ livelihood. But they are currently and have always been illegal here, as the town’s zoning use tables do not specifically include them as an allowed use in the residential/agricultural and commercial zoning districts.
If passed, the new zoning by-law, which went to a public hearing last Tuesday, would make STRs a by-right, permitted use across all of Westport.
If it passes, those who want to rent out legally will need only ‘self-certify’ that they comply with safety and building, health and other code requirements, and pay an as-yet undetermined yearly permit fee to the town.
The select board would oversee and issue permits, approving them once a year, and would be responsible for dealing with neighborhood issues and other problems that crop up from time to time, particularly in the busy summer months.
‘Bare bones’
A similar, but much more complex, by-law failed at last year’s Town Meeting, and town officials have been working tor simplify it for months. While the failed plan would have required a lengthy list of inspections, town board reviews and other regulatory hurdles, the process is much simpler this time around.
“We’re not going to try to have someone come in and inspect,” board chairman and short term rental committee member James Whitin said. “We’re not going to try to have you go before different boards for approval. This is self-certification that you comply — so hopefully that would work.”
“This is a minimal regulation,” fellow board member John Bullard added. “We’ve gotten it down to the bare bones — less is more.”
Questions
Though the room was nearly full, only two residents spoke at Tuesday’s hearing.
Dorothy Paull, of 2048 Main Road, often rents out property for six or more months at a stretch during the off-season, and then switches to short term rentals during the summertime. She asked if the 30-day or less STR requirement would preclude her from renting for longer periods than the STR requirements allow.
No, board members said.
“You can be two things,” Bullard said — when homes are rented out for longer stretches, they are not legally defined as an STR and thus the by-law's regulatory and permitting requirements would only apply to shorter stays, he confirmed.
“You can be two things," he said. "A lot of people do that. We’re not trying to change what’s happened in Westport for a long time, and which characterizes Westport. We’re just trying to make it legal.”
Later, Amy Chitwood of 1507 Drift Road asked what would happen if a neighboring STRs becomes a nuisance.
While enforcement authority would fall with the select board and not the planning department, “I can envision a process that if you have a neighborhood problem that’s continuing, you go get on the agenda for a select board meeting,” Whitin said.
The select board would then “call the permittee in and if they don’t straighten up, they (the select board) can withdraw the permit. And if they’re still doing it without a permit, then the zoning enforcement officer, because it’s a zoning problem, can issue a cease and desist” order.
Speak up, Bullard says
Bullard said last year’s by-law failed in part due to “misinformation” presented by some speakers at town meeting and due to meeting rules, could not be rebutted by those who had already spoken. And so he encouraged those in favor of the proposal to speak out this time if they hear untrue statements presented during floor discussion on the article.
“We’d love you, when it comes to Town Meeting, to say, ‘Hey look, this went down the first time but this is a lot better, and we need this because we don’t want to be operating an illegal STR. This is good for Westport; why put people at whatever (legal) risk it is ... if you don’t have to?”
“See you at Town Meeting, I hope!”