NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Planning Board has approved regulations for short-term rentals that will require owners of such units to register with the city and have annual inspections. 

 

The ordinance passed 6-2 with Planners Lisa Blackmer and Lynette Bond voting against. Chairman Brian Miksic abstained from voting and discussion as he manages a number of short-term rentals. 

 

The measure has been under discussion for a few years. The city had initially held off on regulating the units until the state formulated specific laws. However, the Legislature passed measures to tax these properties but left it up to towns and cities to develop their own policies. 

 

The board on Monday approved the language presented at two prior hearings with three amendments, with one item amended twice. 

 

A number of local owners had objected to the use of "professionally managed" for units that were not in structures where they lived. Hiring a company to manage what for many had been a family home or an investment they maintained themselves would be a burden, they said. 

 

City officials said it was a matter of public safety to have an agent who could be contacted and was knowledgeable about the particular units. 

 

Planner Kyle Hanlon offered an amendment to remove the phrase "professional management company" and replace it with "a local representative within a 25-mile radius of the property."

 

That motion passed unanimously but then Planner Jesse Lee Egan Poirier motioned to remove that entire section relating to management, saying that part seemed the most controversial.

 

"That seems to be the core of everyone's issues, the zoning or the classification of that as an R1," he said. "The discussion about what constitutes a local agent or not or professional agent, just skirt the whole thing for now and then City Council can come back with some new proposals specific to that element."

 

The amendment passed 5-3, with Planners Hanlon, Blackmer and Paul Senecal voting naye.

 

"There's no point in sending it back to the council to rewrite it. We've had it for 2 1/2, three, four years, and that is going between different committees," said Blackmer, president of the City Council. "So we've done the work we're going to do on it at this point."

 

Howard asked if this amendment made the other sections related to local agent in charge or owner-occupied moot. "It just seems like it's awkward, right now," they said. 

 

"I'm just wondering if this the second amendment is just by virtue of the fact that the way its worded is going to eliminate the first amendment because we're taking off professionally managed all together," said Planner Robert Burdick.

 

Paragraph 11 under definitions in the ordinance describes professionally managed as a "dwelling unit made available for short-term rental that is neither the primary residence of the operator nor is located within the same residential building as the operator's primary residence." 

 

Paragraph 12 defines a "local agent in charge" as the individual or company that manages property day to day.

 

It was not clear if the second amendment removed both paragraphs 11 and 12 or just paragraph 11. Poirier mentioned both local agent and professional agent. 

 

Professionally managed units were also expected to meet building codes for residential group R1, as mentioned by Poirer.

 

Another amendment put forward would require units to be inspected annually. The initial language left it to the discretion of Inspection Services but Building Inspector William Meranti thought it a "legitimate amendment."

 

It passed 6-2, with Blackmer and Planner Rye Howard in opposition. Howard thought it would be too frequent for the homeowner. 

 

A third amendment to require registration of units and a certificate was withdrawn when it was pointed out this stipulation was already in the zoning ordinance.