North Adams Approves Short-Term Rental Ordinance
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has a short-term rental ordinance nearly three years after officials first embarked on the process.
The ordinance was passed to a second reading on a vote of 7-2 during the City Council's last meeting of the year on Tuesday. It contains many of the restrictions first raised more than two years ago, but the language was streamlined and clarified over the past year.
"We've been doing this for a year and a half ... The bottom line is what you see or what you read in the paper the next day is just kind of superficial," said Councilor Wayne Wilkinson. "It doesn't tell you the background, doesn't tell you all hard work. It won't be said anywhere, but it's going to be said by me here: Thank you everybody that participated. We got it done."
City officials have debated how to regulate shared economy services like AirBnB and Vrbo off and on over the last decade. Councilor Keith Bona more recently raised concerns over safety issues in unregulated units that spurred action on an ordinance.
However, the regulations last year ran into opposition from a number of residents and debate by officials over language.
The council and Planning Board both took a pass at it and finally, an ad hoc group of Community Development, Inspection Services and a planning consultant worked with the mayor's office to streamline language and definitions.
A major concern brought up right at the beginning of the process was out-of-town investors running rentals through online platforms like AirBnB and Vrbo with no oversight. The state passed legislation to tax short-term rentals through their respective platforms but has left municipalities to figure out how to regulate them. Some towns have simply declined to take on the oversight process, while others have promulgated simple or complex rules as they have seen fit.
Building Inspector William Meranti had said repeatedly that this would be like operating motels and hotels in residential zones but with none of the safety precautions that those businesses are required to have.
Councilors — and a number of local residents — were worried about forcing family homes to be subject to commercial building codes.
The ordinance approved Tuesday night spells out three levels of ownership: owner-occupied, owner-adjacent and professionally managed.
Owner-occupied (the owner's primary residence) and owner-adjacent (a building of four or fewer units in which the owner lives in one of the units) are now allowed by right in residential zones. These buildings must still abide by the state building code, as do all other homes.
Professionally-managed units are allowed by right with site plan approval in business, commercial and industrial zones and by special permit in all five residential zones. Operating these requires a local agent — someone who lives within a 25-mile radius — and that it abides by residential building codes.
The Planning Board approved the new rules three weeks ago with a request for clarifications on removing a limit of three bedrooms for rental units and implementation of a 25-mile radius for local agents to ensure a local contact for Inspections Services. Wilkinson said a third language concern brought up by the Planning Board was considered to be OK after a review by Community Development.
All short-term rental operators will have to register with Inspection Services and the number of people cannot exceed the legal occupancy. Rentals that cause problems or are not up to code, will not be able to operate.
Councilor Jennifer Barbeau asked how the registration will work and if the city will be able to implement the ordinance when it is finalized in two weeks.
"What will the administration prepare for in order to take this on? Do we have a register, do we have inspections?" she asked.
Wilkinson noted that Meranti has been involved in the process from the beginning and has informed the various committees that inspections would be done in a "timely fashion."
"I don't know the administration's plans but every time we spoke with them, they seemed confident that there's no problem in implementing," he said.
Council President Lisa Blackmer and Bona said it was the administration's role to determine how the ordinance would be carried out.
"If the administration felt that this couldn't be done, they would be here saying hold off," said Bona. "It's not our authority to be able to dictate to them how they're supposed to handle their job."
The council voted unanimously to amend a motion to approve to include a review by the city solicitor and then Barbeau and Councilor Marie T. Harpin voted against the ordinance.
In other business, Bona responded to an Open Meeting Law complaint filed by Harpin about a communication from local real estate developer David Carver that he sent to all councilors, related to the city's tax classification. Bona is chair of the Finance Committee and said he thought it important to relay an email and phone conversation he had with Carver after the committee meeting and before the council meeting.
Harpin, in her complaint, called the communication a deliberation of a City Council issue and an "intentional violation" because she felt Bona was expressing an opinion.
Bona, in his response, said he felt the information was important for councilors to have, especially if they wished to contact Carver on their own, and pointed out that he also sent to the local media and then read it into the minutes of the council meeting. No one, other than Harpin, responded, he wrote, but if the state finds it is a violation to share information, he will abide by their instructions.
"I wish you had reached out to me to express your concerns as it could have saved time for city staff and others," Bona wrote. "In the twenty years I've served this is the first report filed against me, but with how many reports and grievances Councilor [Jennifer] Barbeau and yourself have sent to state departments, police departments, administrations on other councilors, staff, committees, and local business owners in the past years, I guess my time was due."
The council voted 7-1 to use Bona's response with Harpin opposed and Barbeau abstaining because she didn't think using her name was appropriate.
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