If we enforce this, we put them out of business.”

Richard Brewer, select board

It would be an enforcement nightmare. We just don’t have the staff to go out and enforce, 160, 170” renters.”

Town administrator James Hartnett

I’m concerned, if we start issuing cease and desist orders, about the legal quagmire we’ll be in. We need to have some sort of moratorium in place until we get something solid.”

Select board member Shana Teas

Two weeks after voters at Town Meeting rejected a warrant article that would have legalized and regulated Short Term Rentals (STRs) in Westport, members of the Select Board warned Monday night that the town needs to come up with a plan for what to do about the practice, and quickly.

“This one is like a hot potato,” board member Richard Brewer said. “Someone’s got to get their arms around it. The rental season is upon us.”

STRs have technically always been illegal in Westport, as the zoning by-laws’ uses table does not specifically refer to them as an allowed use anywhere in town.

Prior to the zoning and planning boards’ move to draft and present regulations before Town Meeting that would have made them an allowed and regulated use, that prohibition was almost never enforced apart from a few sporadic cases.

But following the article’s failure on May 7, the building department drafted a form cease and desist letter that would presumably be sent to renters violating the by-law, though it is unclear whether any have been sent out.

On Monday, several board members said they’re loathe to jump in and “make something illegal that was legal yesterday,” as chairwoman Shana Teas put it.

“I’m getting calls off the hook on this,” added board member Manny Soares. “Most of them are people that have been doing this for generations.”

“If we enforce this, we put them out of business,” offered Brewer.

Town administrator James Hartnett said that prior to Town Meeting, the only rentals that had enforcement action taken against them by the town were those that were problematic or caused issues with neighbors. But with it now established that voters did not want to codify and legalize the practice, sending out cease and desist notices to everyone in town who has a room or house to let would be very difficult.

“It would be an enforcement nightmare. We just don’t have the staff to go out and enforce, 160, 170” renters.

Backing off from here, Hartnett said, won’t be a quick or easy process. One way to address Westport’s conundrum is to “create a moratorium for a year or two while you study it and develop zoning by-laws,” he said.

“I’m concerned, if we start issuing cease and desist orders, about the legal quagmire we’ll be in. We need to have some sort of moratorium in place until we get something solid," Teas added.

While the discussion was not an action item and thus could not be voted on, members agreed that the town should start exploring the options. One messy part of this that has come up, Brewer said, is that even though the practice has always technically been illegal, the town has for years taken a cut of the roughly 10 percent room tax collected by the state on every room rented.

“It’s funny, because you get all these rules but yet, the state is collecting this money too so apparently they didn’t have any problem” with the fact that STRs were and are illegal here.

“And I guess we didn’t either.”

As the town moves ahead to address the issue, several members acknowledged that Westport did a poor job educating the public on the ramifications of the vote, and needs to do better from here on in.

“Again, we didn’t educate like we should,” Soares said.

“Be careful what you’re voting for, because it’s not what you think,” added Teas.