Town Board still pondering short-term rental regulations

By NEAL RENTZ

The Lewisboro Town Board continued its discussion of potential legislation to regulate short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, during its Sept. 29 meeting.

The board began discussing proposals from the town’s Housing Committee in April.

A short-term rental is defined under state law as a rental of less than 30 days. 

Some of the Housing Committee’s recommendations are: all zones could have short-term rentals; the maximum number of occupants would be two adults per bedroom, not including children; occupants, including guests, could not park in a way to block roadway access for emergency vehicles; there could be no corporate ownership of homes used for short-term rentals; and permits would be required with a fee.

Housing Committee Co-Chair Linda Rae told the Town Board in April that the committee researched regulations in several other towns, counties and communities in Connecticut. Rae said she wanted to provide the board with information about how her committee produced its recommendations. The committee also spoke with town Building Inspector Kevn Kelly, she said. 

One of the reasons the committee sought to produce ideas for short-term rentals were complaints from people living in town that short-term rentals were completely unregulated, Rae told the Town Board this week. The concerns were mainly from people in the lake communities, she said.

“The complaints ranged from huge, loud parties, fireworks, music, to just a lot of people piling into one small two-bedroom cottage and disturbing the neighbors,” she said. 

Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said this week the committee’s proposals were on the agenda to give the Town Board members an opportunity to ask questions prior to the drafting of legislation. 

Gonçalves asked Rae for information about state legislation approved earlier this year regulating short-term rentals and how it relates to the committee’s recommendations. 

“The primary focus is on requiring short-term rentals to be registered,” Rae said. “What this law does is requires counties to set up registries.” Westchester County will be required to set up a registry, she said.

Property owners who are making short-term rentals available must register and pay fees under the new state law, Rae noted.  

“It’s very different from the Housing Committee’s recommendations,” Rae said. “They’re really very few requirements in this law.” 

Property owners who provide short-term rentals must meet “basic standards” set by counties, Rae said. 

Councilman Richard Sklarin asked Rae what the legislative intent of the committee’s proposal were. 

“I understand there are complaints about noise or garbage or capacity,” he said. “Where is the legislation filling in?”

Sklarin said he wanted to know what potential legislation would address that is not already in the town code. Some of the concerns people have had about temporary rentals are already addressed in the code, he said. 

Enforcement should be included in legislation regarding short-term rentals, Sklarin added.

With repeated violations of potential town regulations, a homeowner could lose the right to rent out their property, Rae told Sklarin, saying that’s something in place in other towns. 

Councilman Dan Welsh said he agreed with Sklarin that the town code covers some of the complaints residents have had about the conduct of some who have had short-term rentals. But there is still a sense by residents that problems presented by short-term renters is “out of hand at some level,” Welsh said. 

“There is a general sense that we want to put some kind of box around it,” Welsh said. “You can see the trouble we’re having trying to identify that box.” 

Gonçalves said the Town Board would take the recommendations from Kelly and use them as a template for potential legislation, also incorporating ideas from the Housing Committee. 

The Town Board agreed with a suggestion from Welsh to hold a hearing on the potential legislation.