The Warren Town Council unanimously passed the second reading of an ordinance which will limit the prevalence of short-term rental units in town and put additional oversight on an industry which, until this point, had no specific guidance within town code.

“We did our best to work through some of these issues. It’s thorny, there’s no question…but I think we did our best to make this as fair as possible,” said Councilman Brandt Heckert. “Again, the goal was to balance allowing short-term rentals but at the same time not allowing them to proliferate. So here’s our start to do that.”

The ordinance, which retained most of the language from its first passage a month ago, will cap the total number of short-term rental units allowable in town to 125, impose an annual fee of $100 per rental unit, and will require property owners who create short-term rental units to register with the town. The ordinance also requires that one off-street parking space be provided for each short-term rental unit within the property.

The law also limits the number of short-term rental units that can be created within a property to not exceed 50% of the total number of units in the dwelling (for example, a five-unit dwelling may have no more than two short-term rental units, while a two-unit dwelling can only have one).

Important to note is that existing short-term rental units that were operating in town prior to the passage of the new ordinance last Tuesday are considered legal, non-conforming properties that will not be limited to the 50% total unit provision explained above.

It was not immediately clear from the ordinance language itself or after a follow up call with a member of the Town Council whether or not existing AirBnBs would be required to provide off-street parking for their units, or if they would be grandfathered in as with the 50% provision of the ordinance.

A short window for answering complaints
The new law imposes a requirement that short-term rental properties in town must have a local representative who is available on short notice to answer any and all questions or concerns from the Warren Police Department regarding possible violations of existing town law — such as violations regarding noise, parking, or other disturbances to neighbors.

The ordinance states this local representative must live in or have a permanent professional office in Bristol County, and that they must answer requests or respond to complaints within two hours. Failure to do so twice in an annual period would constitute a violation.

Violations of the provisions within the ordinance can result in a fine of not less than $500 and not exceeding $1,000. If not paid within seven days of receiving the violation, an additional $500 late fee can be tacked on.

Council open to adjustments if needed
In terms of the cap on total number of units in town, Councilwoman Keri Cronin said that this, like the other provisions, can be revisited in the future.

“I think this is a really good starting point,” she said. “As we’ve said so far every time we’ve discussed this, we can make changes. If we find that something isn’t working or if we’ve fallen short or overreached, we can come back to the table on it. So I’m comfortable with the way it looks now.”

Council president John Hanley, as he has said in the past regarding this ordinance, said that those who wish to operate short-term rentals as though it were a hotel are still welcome to do so.

“You still have the option to go to the zoning board for a hotel, through a special use permit or a use variance. If you want to run a hotel, that’s the proper way to go through it,” he said. “I’m very comfortable with what we have here, and some communities are much more restrictive than we are, so I don’t think we’re being that unreasonable with our ordinance.”