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Date: 8/16/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – The Zoning Board of Appeals denied an appeal of Building Commissioner David Gardner’s decision to issue a cease and desist letter to the owner of a property in which a short-term rental was operating.
The administrative appeal petition by Tunde Gyorgy was heard at a public hearing on Aug. 10.
Gyorgy’s appeal came as she owns a three-family dwelling at 14 Hadley St. within the Residential A-2 zoning district and uses the first-floor unit as an Airbnb rental. South Hadley residents who rent through Airbnb now require a special permit from the Planning Board to continue operating. According to the town’s current zoning bylaw, bed and breakfast facilities are the only allowable short-term rentals.
The letter sent out said homeowners renting through Airbnb needed to seek special permits for these operations if they are prohibited to under the town’s zoning codes for each district. Not all who received a letter are eligible for a special permit.
During the hearing, Gardener said he saw Gyorgy’s property was not legally a three-family home and had been taxed as a two-family home up until 2005 due to town assessors taking the home for what it is from the outside. Since that time, there have been no building permits issued to the property to convert the attic space into the dwelling it is now.
Gyorgy, who bought the property in 2018, said she was not informed of the legality behind the number of dwellings for the property. She said she was sold the property under the pretenses that it was a legal three-family unit. Gyorgy lived on the property until being furloughed from her job during the coronavirus pandemic. Following that, she moved out and began renting the first-floor unit through Airbnb.
She added that the third-floor tenant has been living on the property since 2005.
The biggest issue other than proper permitting for the property is that South Hadley bylaw use table does not have a short-term rental definition anywhere. A resolution to this could be brought to the next Town Meeting, which would establish some guidance for short-term rental properties for the town.
Back in a July Planning Board meeting, Director of Planning and Conservation Anne Capra shared that she had internal discussions with Gardner and other municipalities on this and added that before Airbnb became popular, bed and breakfasts were the short-term rental option without staying in a hotel.
Capra also suggested the town could amend their Bed & Breakfast Facility Bylaw currently on the books or consider adopting an entirely new bylaw to address short-term rentals in whole. Discussions have continued since this conversation and at the most recent Planning Board meeting on Aug. 8 where discussions centered on potentially moving forward to try and get something on the Town Meeting warrant this fall.
Gyorgy’s lawyer Mike McAndrew was in attendance at the meeting and argued that his client should be able to appeal the cease and desist.
“The town of South Hadley has been doing this years before. They have been allowing this use under the current bylaw interpretation without applying different standards for rental lodging. I don’t believe there’s been any substantive changes,” McAndrew said.
Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Martha Terry said on the advice from the town attorney, they were looking to confirm whether this was a legal three-family use, which according to Gardner it was not. As a result, the building is not in compliance with the town’s zoning bylaw at this point. Any appeal being made for renting one of the dwellings would have to wait until the compliance issue is resolved.
Terry added that even in the letter to the board, Gyorgy admits to operating a short-term rental on the first floor.
“The state recognizes that as a definition. That does not appear in our use regulations table so from that it would be prohibited simply because it does not exist as an entity for South Hadley,” Terry said.
While the board was in their right to prohibit this use, Gardner was still open to giving Gyorgy a legal avenue to make the attic dwelling legal through special permit with the Planning Board.
Gardner explained that in the town’s bylaw they have provisions for bed and breakfasts that include serving breakfast on the property, something not required by Airbnb rentals. He clarified that while this was true, short-term rentals can be something that is not a bed and breakfast. This is one of the key reasons why the town is considering bringing a new bylaw on short-term rentals to Town Meeting.
Gardner reiterated that once the property became a legal three-family dwelling, the rented first floor could not be used as short-term rental until the town adopted something to make it legal under their bylaws. Since Gyorgy no longer lives on the property, her only option until the town would make a change would be to rent out the property as a long-term furnished dwelling. She could not establish a Bed & Breakfast facility as she does not live on the property.
Gyorgy, who came to America almost 20 years ago, explained to the board her situation and how much passion and joy she has gotten by being able to rent out the unit and meet so many new people. She added most of her visitors through Airbnb are parents visiting their children in college. She called this opportunity of renting her “American dream.”
Terry said she had seen Gyorgy’s Airbnb profile where she is listed as a Superhost due to her positive reviews from users. A Superhost is someone who goes above and beyond in their housing duties and is a shining example of how a host should be, according to Airbnb. The Superhost title is showcased on a renters profile when users are looking for a place to stay.
The issue is that the town does not have the proper regulations for short-term rentals. The bed and breakfast alternative requires that the owner of the property live there so the only option for Gyorgy is to rent the first-floor unit long-term after getting the proper permitting, until the town decides on a new bylaw.
Gardner said he was willing to assist Gyorgy in seeing that all permitting is set up to take care of that, so the option is open to her. The cease-and-desist order told these homeowners they had until Sept. 6 to cease operations until a bylaw was created, or they were given a special permit to continue bed and breakfast operations.
Gardner added he does not foresee any hurdles for Gyorgy to get a special permit from the Planning Board to establish the property as a three-family unit.
Board member Jacqueline Dupre suggested Gyorgy may have some recourse with the real estate agent who sold her the home due to not having the unit legally be a three-family dwelling. Gardner said while this may be the case, he does often receive phone calls from real estate agents doing their due diligence on properties in situations like this.
The appeal was denied as the board as Terry said they had no authority in this situation to give Gyorgy any benefit of the doubt as they are enforcers of whatever the town law says. Gyorgy, who said she is eager to resolve these issues, will now look for special permitting to legally establish the property as a three-family dwelling before either deciding to rent out the first floor as a long-term rental or wait until the town is able to incorporate a new bylaw.