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Date: 3/16/2022
SOUTHWICK – The Short Term Rental Subcommittee is seeking public input on the revisiting of Southwick’s bylaws surrounding Airbnb-style rentals as the committee seeks to place an item on the annual Town Meeting warrant.
Members of the committee said that they wanted to receive public input at the next meeting on April 12. They have been exploring whether to allow short term rental properties in Southwick or whether to enforce an existing ban that remains largely unenforced.
At the March 8 meeting committee members and members of the public made various suggestions for how to refine the bylaw, largely with the idea of allowing short term rentals to exist in some capacity. Planning Board member Marcus Phelps suggested allowing such properties but restricting them to single-family homes that have to be partially owner-occupied, meaning that the owner of the property lives there a certain amount of time throughout the year.
Southwick resident Diane Gale suggested a cap on the number of short-term rental properties available in the town.
Jacqueline Senez, a property owner who rents out a house on Congamond Lake, said that enforcing the ban would force some property owners to look for long-term lease tenants. She said that could work out worse for the property owner, because tenants can stop paying their rent. She said the owners of rental property depend upon that income.
“Having a one-day rental is kind of insane, if you ask me, but I don’t know how as a town you make that stop happening,” said Senez.
Committee Chair Randy Brown, the head of the town’s Department of Public Works, said town officials have no way to know if a landlord is consistently hosting one-day rentals, which have been the source of most of the complaints against rental properties in town.
Fire Chief Russ Anderson sits on the committee and said that he can’t see how Southwick can be considered a recreational community without allowing short-term rentals to promote tourism to the area.
Southwick Building Inspector Kyle Scott made the argument that allowing rentals with new regulations could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of rental properties in Southwick.
“With regulations, you aren’t going to get any less of these, you will get many more,” said Scott, “People are already doing it knowing they aren’t allowed to.”
The committee will invite public comment on a potential bylaw change April 12, with the hopes of developing something to be voted on by the town May 17.