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Date: 9/27/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – Director of Planning and Conservation Anne Capra brought a new update regarding the resolution talks on a short-term rental bylaw to the South Hadley Planning Board’s Sept. 19 meeting as the town sets their sights on a potential Town Meeting vote.
Capra updated board members of her ongoing discussions with Building Commissioner David Gardner and Director of Public Health Sharon Hart by sharing she was currently recommending they begin working toward the development of a general bylaw and a zoning bylaw related to the ongoing short-term rental issue.
According to Capra, the development of a general bylaw would set up a registration and licensing process for short-term rentals and circumstances where this could be revoked would be identified through this process. As for a zoning bylaw pertaining to short-term rentals, districts in which short-term rentals would be allowed would be regulated through the bylaw.
“Those two templates have been laid out and at this point if you’re in agreement of that being the framework, I think what’s important to discuss now is what zoning districts do we want to allow this in,” Capra said.
Discussions on the town’s short-term rental bylaws began after multiple residents who have rented out rooms through the platform Airbnb received cease-and-desist orders from Gardner in April as the facilities were short-term rental options classified as short-term transient lodging facilities. This classification goes against zoning laws in South Hadley, as currently the only allowable way for short-term rental in the town is by establishing an official bed and breakfast.
The letter sent out said these homeowners needed to seek a special permit for operations if they are prohibited to under the town’s zoning codes for each district. Not all who received a letter are eligible for the special permit.
Capra said along with her work with Gardner and Hart, she has been speaking with other communities and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to get feedback on how other communities have approached similar resolutions to their town’s short-term bylaw issues.
Planning Board Chair Brad Hutchison asked Capra if she had noticed any distinction other communities made between different types of short-term rentals such as owner occupied renting or general renting of an unoccupied home. Capra said she has not seen anything like that as they have had either no reference to owner occupied rentals or there is, but there was no distinction made for the bylaw.
Board member Nate Therian asked what agency would have jurisdiction over the registry that would be included in the general bylaw. Therian was concerned how regulation and enforcement would go from the registry if some residents’ concerns for these rentals became a consistent reality.
“It seems to be one of the issues alarming people would be the impact on neighborhoods due to things like bad choices by the renter,” Therian said.
Board member Joanna Brown also agreed with Therian’s point and added she felt most of what the town has seen through the special permitting process suggests the town has no need to introduce any form of non-owner-occupied short-term rentals. Almost all the residents applying for the special permit to have a bed and breakfast were owner-occupied rentals.
“All you need to do is Google complaints about Airbnb and short-term rentals and you’ll see a lot of pages coming up,” Brown said. “I fully support the bed and breakfast concept. It means someone is in the house. That seems to me to be a guarantee there will be proper use of the building.”
Capra responded to the comments by saying the draft language they have for the two potential new bylaws makes clear this is only related to short-term rentals. She suggested that when differentiating the two types of rentals, the idea would be to have any non-owner-occupied rentals outside of any residential zones.
Hutchison added he did not want to create too much oversight through a new registry based on the situations commonly being faced in town.
“When I think about the applicants that have been coming before us, it’s been a lot of single-family houses. I don’t think anybody necessarily knew their neighbors were having transient lodging or short-term rentals,” Hutchison said.
Capra explained the set-up process of a registration would create an advantage to be able to more clearly see who is registered and what the situation is at the time rather than going back in a different approach like now where the board goes from special permit to special permit. She added that the building commissioner has the need to regulate rental properties in town as well as building codes while the director of public health has the need the regulate sanitation codes.
Capra explained that if a resident wanted a short-term rental they could come to the Planning Board for a special permit, then the resident would be required to go to the building commissioner for a rental license. The rental license will be for short- and long-term rentals and then a resident would need to meet with the Public Health Department for a special registration under them that has one year terms.
The idea is to renew those renters in good standing and have followed the regulations yearly and have the opportunity to revoke if rules were being violated. A lodging permit would also be necessary from the Health Department, according to Capra.
As the discussion wrapped up, Capra asked board members to begin consideration of what districts in the town would be good to allow for the specific short-term rentals. Capra will continue to work with Gardner and Hart as they are eyeing Town Meeting later this year for when to bring this to town vote.