GREAT BARRINGTON — Like many others in the Berkshires and across the nation, town officials are scrambling to address the impacts of the short-term housing rental market pioneered by online giants such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
In Great Barrington, a subcommittee on housing was created in 2019 to explore strategies on addressing housing affordability in a town where home ownership and affordable rentals are rapidly growing out of reach for middle-income residents. The panel consists of two members apiece from the planning board and the selectboard.
At last night’s meeting, members discussed options for reining in short-term rentals because of their impact on housing costs and availability — both for buyers and renters.
Unfortunately, the committee’s last two meetings have been plagued by bad luck. The September 20 meeting was attacked by Zoom bombers. Last night’s meeting was interrupted twice when the meeting was knocked offline. Town Planner Chris Rembold suspects the problem was that another board or committee was trying to use the town Zoom account at the same time and bumped the housing subcommittee offline.
Pedro Pachano, an architect and planning board member who chairs the subcommittee, had previously circulated a pair of draft proposals to address starter homes and affordable housing incentives for, he said, “purposes of discussion only.”
“We have chosen to discuss [the short-term rental] item out of some concern that short-term rentals are biting into our long-term rentals in town … potentially increasing the price of home ownership,” Pachano said.
Last night, however, the focus was on what selectboard member Leigh Davis called a “housing crisis” precipitated, in part, by “commercial investors [driving up] the cost of rents and ownership out of reach for many full-time residents.” Davis further said she wanted to “discourage real estate speculation and maintain the residential character of existing neighborhoods.”
Davis raised the possibility of restricting short-term rental owners to full-time residents. She suggested this would discourage out-of-town investors from buying up homes to offer on the short-term rental market, taking those properties off the long-term rental market and/or driving up the cost of home ownership for full-time residents.
“By restricting short-term rental operations to a host’s primary residence, the town can respect a homeowners’ wish to generate income from their property without opening the door to a flood of outside speculative investors who buy up inventory and raise prices,” Davis told The Edge after the meeting.
Davis did some research recently on AirDNA.co, a data and analytics site that tracks short-term rentals. She learned that Great Barrington has 171 homes for rent on Airbnb and Vrbo and 16 private rooms for rent. Pachano said that translates to only 20 percent of the town’s entire rental stock.
“Does that qualify as a problem?” Pachano asked.
Pachano also questioned whether someone who has owned a home in Great Barrington for a long time and spends six months of the year in Florida would be able to rent out his/her home.
Davis said yes. Planning board member Jonathan Hankin said the numbers at the state registry are slightly smaller. Davis attributed the difference to the possibility that some landlords do not bother to register with the state.
“We’re talking about commercial investors, not primary residents,” Davis said. “By freeing up housing in residential areas, we are supporting full-time residents.”
Hankin, a real estate broker who himself owns rental properties, questioned whether Davis’ proposed restriction could be enforced, especially since Great Barrington voters rejected mandatory registration with the town two years ago.
Selectboard member Ed Abrahams shared Hankin’s sentiments and suggested the town consider taxing short-term rentals “and use that money to develop or subsidize affordable housing.”
“I would make sure the things you are proposing are achieving the very worthy goals that you’ve got,” Abrahams told Davis.
But Airbnb and its competitors do not actually own property. They are essentially middlemen that match travelers, vacationers, and others in need of short-term lodging with landlords and homeowners willing to rent for the short term.
As a result, many towns and cities across the state are grappling with an array of gray areas, including whether and how to tax these short-term rentals and whether they should be held to the same zoning, building, and health standards as traditional hotels and B&Bs. Some towns have targeted short-term rentals for increased regulations and taxation.
The town of Lenox voted to enact short-term rental regulations and require registration two years ago after a lengthy debate and planning process. The bylaw covers rentals of fewer than 32 consecutive days. Click here to read the text and here to read the registration bylaw.
Voters in Nantucket overwhelmingly rejected a proposed bylaw restricting short-term rentals in June. The proposal would have prevented many property owners from leasing homes to tourists for more than 45 nights a year, or for less than a week at a time, according to the Boston Globe. At the same time, however, voters approved in excess of $16 million in spending and borrowing capacity for affordable-housing projects.
Pachano suggested the subcommittee put together a formal proposal and present it before the selectboard. The subcommittee has not yet set a date for its next meeting.
“Whatever is ultimately put forward at Town Meeting, I see the preliminary discussions of the housing subcommittee as a positive first step by the Town to listen to and respond to citizens’ concerns about housing,” Davis said.
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October 08, 2021 at 04:02AM
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GB housing panel mulls rules on short-term rentals from 'speculative investors' - theberkshireedge.com
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