MADISON – Some attendees at the planning committee meeting on Wednesday said they want short-term rentals to be banned while others said they should be regulated.
The planning committee was due to take up the issue on Aug. 4, but the board, concerned that there was a crowd in the small town hall boardroom during the COVID-19 pandemic, postponed it to Wednesday when it could be held at the elementary gym .
About a dozen people attended on Wednesday.
The planning committee is aiming for a short-term settlement of the arrest warrant, which the voters are supposed to adopt next March.
Shawn Bergeron, owner of Bergeron Technical Services, offered to consider a draft short-term rental regulation. As suggested by Bergeron, STR’s rentals would be under 30 days. It could be a single family home that is not occupied by the owner and can accommodate up to 16 people. The owners would have to obtain a conditional usage permit from Selectmen.
At the meeting, Bergeron said another option would be for permission to be granted through a special exception from the building authority.
“Remember, I took this to the City of Madison to try not to get into the mess other communities are in,” Bergeron said, referring to Conway on trial against rental property owners. “There are many ways to skin a cat.”
The Sun asked Chairman Marc Ohlson if the city had an official position on whether or not short-term rentals are currently legal.
“We haven’t got that far,” said Ohlson.
Selectman Josh Shackford said he asked city attorney Diane Gorrow about it.
Shackford said his understanding was due to the fact that city ordinance doesn’t specifically allow short-term rentals, which means they’re not allowed. He said that the Edelweiss village district regulations specifically state that there are no commercial operations there.
Shackford said he believes STRs are commercial, but others in the room said whether the rents are residential or commercial is not yet clear.
The planning committee sends a draft to the city lawyer for review. Two changes by the planning committee concerned the revisiting of a property after a certain period of time and the non-transferability of permits to a new owner in the event of a sale.
Bergeron suggested that four years between inspections would be appropriate.
When Ohlson opened the session to public comment, the board caught the attention of residents and short-term renters.
Julie Arrison-Bishop posed as the owner of a short term rental in Massachusetts. She said the STR that she and her husband have is run responsibly. She said such rentals are big money for the area and that their rental can generate up to $ 2,000 in tourist spend per weekend.
In addition, Arrison-Bishop said she and her husband pay between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000 a year to maintain the property. She said there are an estimated 171 rental apartments in the city. She supported the idea of a sensible settlement.
“It’s not just a property for us, not just a business for us,” she said. “We really want to be part of this community.”
Resident Kathy Koziell spoke about the impact of STRs on the neighborhood. She thinks that if the city is to have short-term rents, they should be owner-occupied.
“We have a really hard time doing business in our neighborhood,” she said.
“We moved to a residential area, we wanted our neighbors to be neighbors and Koziel has this sense of community in our area where we live, sleep and work.
Nick Borelli, who described himself as a retired builder, said he thought short-term rentals are businesses that just don’t belong in residential areas. He said single-family homes were not designed to be used as motels and overcrowding would overwhelm sewage treatment plants.
Borelli said passing a proposal like Bergeron’s would amount to overturning existing zoning laws that prevent commercial business in residential areas.
“That’s bullshit,” said Borelli.
Bergeron said attempting to ban STRs would lead to “brutal legal battle”.
Resident Debbie Anderson liked the idea of rules, not prohibitions. She also supported the idea that in the event of a problem, the landlord would have to provide the city with contact information.
Nordel Gagnon complained about noise problems like people arriving late at night with loud music.
Short-term rental owner Jennifer Orr of the Concord area said she also responsibly runs a rental in the city. She suggested Madison issue a noise ordinance.
“I think we are trying to deal with the problematic properties,” Orr said of the draft regulations.
On one point raised by Borelli and others, Orr said she and her husband had upgraded their property’s sewage system.
Selectmen recently decided to enter into a contract with a company called Host Compliance to inventory short term rentals. Selectmen and Host Compliance are to hold a kick-off meeting on Monday at 2.30 p.m. in the town hall.
They will hold additional meetings in September and October and public hearings in November and December.
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