North Adams to Draft Short Term Rental Regulations
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city will begin the process of crafting short-term rental regulations with the goal of having something before City Council this summer.
The Community Development Committee held a public information session with the Community Development Office and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday to go over some possible elements of a policy to regulate online rentals like AirBnB.
"This is the beginning of the process and we are not looking to prohibit or penalize short-term rentals in the city," committee member Jason LaForest said. "So please don't think we are out to get you. We just want to make sure everyone is safe and it works for the city and the property owners."
Nathaniel Karns, representing BRPC, led the presentation. He said local planning agencies are early in the process of deliberating regulations and although they have looked at other communities' rules, in they have yet to put anything to paper.
The state has so far only instituted a taxation process and the only requirement to hold liability insurance. It has not set any rules on inspections or permitting, leaving those policies to be hashed out by municipalities.
"Really this is an exercise in balancing various interests since we haven't really reached any solid place. We just started this discussion," he said.
Karns said a quick scan of Airbnb yielded 62 rentable units but he ventured to guess there were more unlisted or on separate platforms.
"Short-term rentals are here and they probably have always been here to some limited extent," he said. "I would not be surprised if a couple of houses in town have been listed for rent for years. With the internet age ... we are seeing a real expansion of this and ... most of them are probably operating outside of the law."
He said recently passed state regulations are essentially a taxing law and only refer to current state building, fire, and health codes. He said these properties are taxed around 6 percent through the online platforms but a community, which has already adopted the lodging tax, can bring in up to another 3 percent as a separate community impact fee.
He said this takes council and mayoral approval and no less than 30 percent of revenue must go toward affordable housing and infrastructure.
Karns said in any regulation it is important to define different units. He gave some loose definitions and examples.
- Owner occupied: the owner of the property lives in the same unit.
- Owner adjacent: the owner owns a property with multiple apartments in which they live in one.
- Owner present: The owner lives in the property most of the time but rents it out when they are away.
- Absentee investor: The property owner does not live on the premise or even in the same community.
Building Inspector William Meranti said, from a zoning perspective, short-term rentals cause him a lot of concern.
"In my world this is as black and white as my work gets and my work is kind of grey," he said.
He said some of the arrangements can fit into pre-existing conditions. The city can work with owner occupied, owner adjacent, and even owner present rentals with some stipulations, however, investment properties where the owner is away from the property create zoning complications.
He said the key word is transient -- which means renting for less than 30 days, which although it works in most of the scenarios, does not when the owner or a manager is not present. According to zoning, these properties would be considered motels/hotels, which are zoned R-1.
These short-term rental properties are most definitely not built to hotel code or regulated to hotel code and really cannot exist in neighborhoods.
"They are not allowed in the majority of zones in our city because ... you have people coming in staying in apartments or houses they aren't familiar with and the building is not to code," Meranti said.
Karns said the city does have options and could look at zoning to determine where these properties can exist. He said most of those online seem to be clustered around Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
If the city were to implement its own registration system, it could limit the amount of rentals in certain zones. The city could also limit the times during which these units are rented. He said they could operate seasonally.
"So when Wilco is in town, Fresh Grass, or MCLA graduation and there aren't enough hotel rooms maybe you loosen up for a short period of time," he said. "To allow more people to stay here and spend some money in the city."
Karns said regular inspections could be built into a policy as well as the ability for the city to revoke permits or disallow permits for properties with outstanding violations or bills.
On the health code front, there are also problems. For instance, the moment a renter uses a pool or Jacuzzi, they become "semi-public," which triggers a host of health codes. This also goes for meals prepared by anyone other than the renter.
Karns ran through more known issues such as parking, garbage collection, and the possibility of residential units becoming party houses or event spaces.
"You get used to the family next door and all of their quirks and aggravations that they may cause you," he said. "Now every few days or weeks, there is a totally new set of people there."
Karns saw enforcement as an issue especially with absent property owners. Not only do the renters need a contact person but so does the city and neighborhood. The city would need to set up some sort of mechanism to handle complaints.
He thought it would also be hard to keep an active list of all properties with 20 to 30 percent turnover of units going in and out.
"You have a real churn rate there so even keeping track of who and how many can be an issue," he said.
One larger overarching issue Karns mentioned was loss of housing stock. He said there is always a fear that investment properties could eat away at affordable housing stock or housing stock in general.
City Councilor Keith Bona, who attended the meeting, said this brought up a recent conversation about gentrification and noted that he has noticed a demand for some of his own rental units with limited affordable quality housing in North Adams.
"There are some out there but they aren't all great," he said. "What I think is happening is the good ones are turning into short-term rentals so that could be a concern."
Karns said there are ways to handle this and the city could limit or prohibit the conversion of existing housing or longer-term rentals into short-term rental space. Also the city could require ownership for a certain amount of time.
"If someone is making a transition and they have lived in their house for 25 years maybe they are allowed to move on with their life," he said. "This is a way they can capture some money while they do that."
He did acknowledge that there is a real plus to these properties becoming short-term rentals and noted they are often heavily invested in and improved. He said this also can be written into a regulation so property owners are forced to make improvements to housing stock in the city.
City Councilor Lisa Blackmer, who also attended, said she was hesitant to create too many regulations and felt the real concern was protecting neighborhoods and maintaining proper public health standards.
"I want to be cognizant of neighborhoods ... and people should be allowed to rent out for a little extra income," she said. "I don't want to overregulate anyone."
The committee opened up the floor and attendees, who were mostly short-term rental property owners aired some of their own concerns.
It was stated that the Airbnb platform itself has very high standards and not only can property owners rate guests but guests rate them. Property owners have to put a lot of care into properties to become "super hosts."
There was a general consensus that short-term rentals were good for the city and really did improve housing stock. It was felt that outside investment saved a lot of properties that in many cases would just sit and deteriorate.
There was also a concern about disallowing absentee investor properties. Some guaranteed there would be no investment if investors could not get some return.
There were specific concerns about language used at the meeting such as "illegal use" or "absentee owner/manager" and the committee was asked to be careful when drafting definitions.
The committee was asked about next steps specifically if data would be used to inform a policy.
Zachery Feury of Community Development said the city is currently reviewing possible organizations or software that could guide the city through a data dive. It was also noted that feedback from short term rental property owners would be critical during the process.
Karns said they would like to meet with the Planning Board in April and have a hearing or proposal ready for May.
He said they hope the Planning Board can make a recommendation to the City Council in May or June with a City Council vote in June or July and a second vote in July or August.
Tags: short-term rentals, zoning,
