The clock is ticking for the owners of a 50 Spinnaker Way home to appeal a recent town order that bars them from renting their home as a short term rental (STR).

In mid-August, members of the zoning board of appeals dismissed an appeal filed by owners Brenda Hernandez and Roger Andrews of a cease-and-desist order filed by the town, which ruled that renting out the home via Airbnb and other similar sites did not conform with the town’s land use regulations, and is therefore not allowed.

The owners were given until Tuesday, Sept. 26, to appeal that decision. And while their attorney, Robert Pellegrini, did not return two phone calls placed by the Westport Shorelines, Westport Town Planner Michael Burris said in an e-mail Wednesday that he believes the owners tend to appeal.

In their Wednesday, August 23 decision, zoning board members agreed with building official Ralph Souza, who wrote in a cease-and-desist order filed in July that since the list of the town’s allowed uses for residential/agriculturally-zoned land do not specifically mention short term rentals, they are by default not allowed.

The board’s vote to deny the appeal was unanimous, and followed months of acrimony over what one neighbor termed the “House from hell.”

The owners purchased the property late last year and began renting it out over the Spring. Since then, neighbors have called police several times to report congestion and other issues, and several hung signs on their lawn stating that “Neighborhoods are for neighbors,” and not for short term rentals.

The board’s decision to uphold the cease-and-desist order — the second filed by Souza over the rental property — comes as the town renews efforts started a few years ago to regulate STRs in town. There are currently no regulations on the books, and a new subcommittee formed to study the issue hopes to have bylaws drafted in time for public hearings and, ultimately, a warrant article that would be presented to voters at next year’s Town Meeting.

Second order

Souza’s first cease-and-desist order was thrown out after the Spinnaker Way owners appealed earlier in the summer, claiming that Souza’s reasoning behind the order was flawed as it referred to bed and breakfast operations, which the Spinnaker Way home is not.

On June 21, zoning board members met and upheld that appeal, ruling that the town’s by-laws, among other things, state that bed and breakfasts must be owner-occupied and have no more than one to three bedrooms. Pellegrini said that since the owners have never lived in the home and purchased it as a commercial property, and since it has four bedrooms, Souza’s cease-and-desist order was unenforceable.

The zoning board unanimously upheld that appeal.