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Date: 12/19/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – The Planning Board has finalized drafts for a new zoning and general bylaw to address the town’s lack of bylaw surrounding short-term rental properties.
Short term rentals in South Hadley are being considered as any rental of all or part of a dwelling unit for 28 consecutive days or less, including home sharing and vacation rentals. 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 Building Commissioner David Gardner in April.
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 a bed and breakfast.
“This is a topic nationally, so we felt it was important to regulate them [short-term rentals],” said Director of Planning and Conservation Anne Capra to Reminder Publishing. “We want to make sure that there was a really firm process in place…these bylaws are drafts, they don’t exist yet. These are programs and procedures that we are discussing. It seems like there’s a need in the community [with short-term rental bylaws] and were discussing the framework for creating them now.”
With the announcement of drafts for the two proposed bylaws, the Planning Board have posted a notice for a Feb. 6, 2023 virtual public hearing on the matter.
The proposed zoning bylaw looks to regulate the use (activity on a specific parcel of land) within each of the 12 zoning districts in South Hadley. Such a regulation includes whether or not the use is allowed, by what form of zoning permit, if any, and the standards that the use must comply with.
Zoning permits for short-term rentals would be proposed to be either by site plan review or special permit. With this drafted bylaw, short-term rentals are classified as either owner occupied or non-owner occupied.
Owner occupied short-term rentals are proposed to be allowed by site plan review in the four residential zoning districts (RA1, RA2, RB, RC) and the agricultural zoning district. It is also by-right in the four business zoning districts (BA1, BA, BB, BC) and is prohibited in the industrial zoning districts.
Non-owner-occupied short-term rentals are proposed to be allowed by special permit in the residential, agricultural and business zoning districts and would be prohibited in the industrial zoning district.
The purpose of the proposed general bylaw is to establish regulations that are not legally permitted with zoning and apply generally townwide irrespective of zoning. The primary purpose of the general bylaw is to create a licensing and registration process for all short-term rentals and a process for inspections and complaints.
The general bylaw designates the building commissioner as both the licensing agent and enforcement officer. The limit on the total number of short-term rental licenses in South Hadley will be 25, and of the total number of licenses, no more than five shall be non-owner occupied. According to Capra, there are almost 7,000 dwelling units in town so they felt the 25 rental cap was a fair start as it would be less than 1 percent of the town’s population eligible for renting out a short-term rental.
Capra said one issue that has been discussed at length by the board during this process is expressed concerns from residents about worse case scenarios for Airbnb rentals. Residents cited many different examples of Airbnb and other rentals renting out a property in a neighborhood to renters who end up throwing a party and disrupting neighbors.
Capra said the board was focused on figuring out if these issues were going to be a real problem for South Hadley due to the prevalence of the concern in cities and vacation spots.
“What we found is that those property owners all told us that their clientele were families visiting Mount Holyoke College in that it was often parents and or visiting professors or some other association with the college and because of that, they just weren’t experiencing the kind of problems that the short-term rentals might experience in other communities,” Capra said.
With the board not getting direct feedback of these instances happening at any consistent level, Capra said it became clear these renters were helping fill the need to provide more overnight lodging in town for visitors of the community and college.
Capra also noted that within the general bylaw draft are very specific standards about nuisance, noise and parking at a rental.
“If you do that and complaints are coming in, your license can be suspended and ultimately terminated if your rental is creating a nuisance in the neighborhood,” Capra said. “We really tried to address those concerns through that.”
The next step now is a public hearing in February through the Planning Board, a requirement of state law when looking to create a new bylaw. If the hearing goes smoothly and residents express feedback, the plan is to bring the drafted bylaws to Town Meeting in the spring to be voted on to officially create the bylaws.
“We hope that people will come out and express their thoughts on the draft bylaw and on this topic in general. The board will also take into consideration any feedback that does come from the community and then after they will decide if they want to make any edits to the draft bylaws,” Capra said.
Capra added that this was also an opportunity for economic development and small business opportunities as the bylaws would allow for homeowners to generate some income from their properties and bring visitors to the area. She also called these proposed bylaws not only a benefit to the town, but to Mount Holyoke as it can provide welcomed lodging closer to the campus than any hotel or motel available.
Capra noted the Planning Board has been working toward a solution to this issue and trying to get ahead of any future issues by getting some regulations in place.
“Short-term rentals are growing in numbers around the country and so it’s a current land use and community planning topic and I think that just by pretending they’re not happening in South Hadley and not adopting regulations does not serve the community,” Capra said. “I think we need to be proactive, have some regulations in place and do that before any problems arise. Why not have a system in place that really manages these things and keeps track of them? I think that’s important.”