<p>On the heels of a planning effort aimed at expanding Island housing opportunities, the Chilmark planning board has begun investigating short-term rentals such as those offered through Airbnb.</p>
On the heels of a wide-ranging planning effort aimed at expanding housing opportunities on the Island, the Chilmark planning board has begun investigating short-term rentals such as those offered through Airbnb, and whether they present an obstacle to year-round affordable housing.
At their meeting last week, planning board members pondered whether short-term rentals are in fact a problem, given their importance to many year-rounders who rely on the extra income. But they agreed to continue exploring the issue in the coming weeks.
“It’s in the very beginning stages,” town clerk and planning board assistant Jennifer Christy said of the effort, noting the possibility of permit-management software to help evaluate the effect on the housing market.
The summer vacation rental business has long been a fixture on the Island, handled by real estate agencies, and in more recent years online vacation websites such as Vacation Rental by Owner and Weneedavacation.com, a site that caters specifically to the Cape and Islands. Airbnb arrived on the Island in 2013. Its online vacation rental service remains largely unregulated in the state, although a newly proposed bill would apply a tax to high-volume room rentals.
One goal in Chilmark is to determine whether a new tax on short-term rentals would be appropriate and how it might be applied.
“I’m sure it’s a double edged sword,” planning board chairman Richard Osnoss said at the meeting last Monday. “There are probably people that have rental properties that are used strictly as income, and other people who maybe live here year-round and also rent their houses out.” He added that short-term rentals may end up hurting local hotels and inns, but that Chilmark has only a few of those businesses.
As one indication of the scale, the Airbnb website lists about 50 properties available in Chilmark, with prices ranging from $150 to $1,200 per night. The website lists about 300 properties for the Island as a whole, with prices ranging from $50 to $5,600 per night. The bulk of available Airbnb rentals are in Tisbury and Oak Bluffs.
Planning board member Janet Widener noted the longstanding practice of renting houses for one to four weeks at a time. “That’s the kind of thing the town is built on in a lot of ways,” she said, adding that she wondered how shorter-term rentals were any different.
Other questions focused on how to define short-term rentals, and at what point they become a problem. “If 95 per cent of those rentals were strictly in people’s third homes, that they’re strictly using for income, you might say, wow,’” Mr. Osnoss said, alluding to the possible disadvantage for year-rounders.
More than two thirds of Chilmark’s 1,560 housing units (the greatest proportion of any Island town) are used for seasonal or vacation use, according to a draft housing production plan issued by consultants at JM Goldson in January. As with the other towns, the plan recommends a number of strategies, including a tax on seasonal rentals and the creation of an Island seasonal housing task force.
A series of workshops in each Island town last year helped provide a foundation for the plans, with Chilmark having among the highest turnouts. But town officials have offered only a lukewarm response so far, welcoming the data but pointing to a lack of detail and an apparent conflict between a need for moderate income housing and the state’s focus on lower income households.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which is helping to coordinate the process, is now working with town planning boards to determine the next steps, including possible bylaw amendments to comply with state and federal regulations. Some of the strategies, including a tax on seasonal rentals, would require special legislation and a concerted lobbying effort.
MVC affordable housing planner Christine Flynn, who met with the planning board, said one goal for the town is to determine how it can participate in the Islandwide efforts while also pursuing its own goals.
“We are never going to solve the problem,” she said. “But each town can address it.”
Housing committee member Ann Wallace said she looked forward to hearing what other towns had to say, but still had reservations about the housing production plan. “It’s a little limp,” she said. “It’s not specific. We have work to do.”
“We are really good at doing what is asked of us,” planning board and MVC member Joan Malkin told Ms. Flynn at the meeting. “We are much less good about thinking: Well, how can we implement change. The more specific you can be about what it is you want us to consider, you will get outcomes.”
Comments
Here's the difference. A
deshandra brown mvHere's the difference. A short term rental,if not under the rules regulations and guidelines of a hotel, would be more akin to a 'rooming house'. I sure would not want transients renting a place 'by the room' next to me.
Deshandra
dick heath Mashpee, MaDeshandra
With the out of this world housing, rental et al prices over there on the rock, I doubt very, very much you would have, what you refer to, as a transient living next door. Besides, that sounds like a very uppity comment. What is your definition of transient anyway? Someone making less than $100K a year?
Could never understand why
DT WTCould never understand why the many many homeowners on island, some charging $50,000 a week, are able to skirt paying the same lodging tax which hotels/motels and B&B's must pay.
Any property owner getting
BF WTAny property owner getting 50k a week rental are paying the 'lodging tax' with their high property tax.
Any one may rent their own
Abby Normal The RockAny one may rent their own home for 14 days per week with no taxes. It is a law. Beyond that, they are suppose to claim the income and report it on their taxes, schedule E.
We always looks to "others" to pay for "our" problems. While the answers are known and have been known for decades. Density increases in certain places, allowing single room occupancy and accessory dwelling units by right, would help. Some will rent seasonally, some will rent annually, some will put family or a caretaker in them.
This island loves to study and debate, then when something like a Housing Production Plan is done, the towns are shocked, shocked, there is a problem.
Nothing is easy. This is a resort island and always will be. The rock will not go away, although the current edges may go underwater in the future :-) It will become more like Nantucket, with an average per home price of $2 million and the work force arriving by boat.
Owners/landlords don't pay a
WashAbhored EdgartownOwners/landlords don't pay a lodging tax the tenant does. So, taxes like this just raise the rent being paid which probably means they either are less likely to visit or less likely to spend as much money elsewhere on the Island.
We are able to do the needed
JK ChilmarkWe are able to do the needed repairs our small year-round home, hiring island labor in the off-season, by leaving in August and renting the house for a few weeks. We already pay tax on the income. If we have to pay more, it will be increasingly difficult to continue to keep up the house. We are not contributing to the housing problem by doing this.
Then again some of us charge
EH EdgartownThen again some of us charge much less ($600-1000/Week) and rent to weekly vacationers who are or were regular working people - the single Mom, the mailman, the retired couple. A tax burden will cause even more of a loss.
Isn't this just an economic
A. Kelly EdgartownIsn't this just an economic lesson of supply and demand. If you saw an opportunity to earn some extra income or in many cases ALOT of extra income wouldn't you do it? I would. I feel for the year round folks and seasonal workers who cannot find affordable housing, but is that the problem of the legitimate home builder, buyer, seller, investor or is it the problem of the toothless regulations or lack thereof here on the island and Massachusetts at large. It seems the elected and/or appointed officials here on this beautiful island should have stepped up a long time ago to try and stop or change the influx of property grabs, McMansions and the like. However, the doors to the barn cannot be closed after the horse is long gone. Keep in mind any regulations or changes usually have a negative on the very people that live here year round trying to scrape enough together to get to the next shoulder season. It truly is a double edged sword.
I'm not convinced a small tax
Alice Kyburg West TisburyI'm not convinced a small tax that is passed on to the short term summer renter would have much impact on the vacation rental market or the local home owner trying to bring in a little extra income. What's the difference between $2000 and $2100? It could force homeowners who have gotten away with not declaring income for tax purposes to have to declare it, but maybe that's worth having some funding to address a serious local housing problem. I think sometimes we get a little greedy.
You are about 30 years late.
Donald Muckerheide Oak BluffsYou are about 30 years late. Read existing law. The weekly rental is, and has always been, illegal. See your towns home business regulations, definition of rooming house and MGL. Chap. 59 section 2a. I have been writing about this for about 25 years. Ma. is a very special kind of stupid crossed with a gross amount of greed. I met a young woman once bragging how she owned 12 houses that were all weekly rentals. This is generational theft and it is time for the boomers to give back what they stole from their children and grand children. Any house, that is not a legitimate residents home, and rented for less than 60 or 90 days should be subject to commercial valuation for property tax, rooms tax, permitting, inspection and occupants kept to a maximum capacity. The idea that this is just coming into the view of the MVC is all the more reason to vote them out of existence.
This island is built on greed
charlie callahan so boston/edgartownThis island is built on greed. Wasn't always, but it is now.
With most of the Air BNB
Larry Figueroa Los Angeles CaliforniaWith most of the Air BNB rentals in OB and VH, I am guessing that folks are supplementing the income to be able to continue to afford to live there. If you rent a room out, I can the argument for rooms tax collection... but if you renting the entire place, that a lease and not a room occupancy and thus why should the tax apply. My aunt used to rent out a bedroom or two in her house in downtown Edgartown (when Katama and Ocean Heights were hardly populated and almost everyone lived in town) under a law that allowed an owner to do that without getting any license to be a rooming house. That extra $50 a day for a handful of weeks helped her to pay the oil bill in winter. Put in an exemption amount and then seek a rooms tax from those who are really running a room rental business and not penalize those who are just doing it to get by.
I have been a seasonal
DeborahI have been a seasonal visitor to the island since the 70's and honestly, I can't afford to visit much anymore so tacking an extra 100 onto an already exorbitant 2000 a week rental is unfeasible for me.I think it is absolute madness that rentals are so high.I understand "what the market will bear" but I can't seem to find a weekly rental that is less than a month's worth of mortgage.
The real problem is a lack of
CJ EdgartownThe real problem is a lack of apartment complexes - no one wants to hear about it, but the majority of people needing housing can not and maybe never will be able to buy a house. We need an apartment complex with 50-75 units of different bedroom size. The problem is no one wants it their back yard. One near the airport (on the bus line) would be ideal.
I have no problem with it.
Bill KatamaI have no problem with it. Most properties would sit vacant without short term rentals. Most properties pay a property tax anyway. More money for a growing government.
I'm not an Islander, but I've
David PAI'm not an Islander, but I've been coming to Chilmark since the 60s. As my Dad always said: "when he could afford the properties he had no money and when he had money, he couldn't afford the properties." I've watched a lot of long time summer owners have to sell because they couldn't afford to keep their property or because the house got worth so much money that their children couldn't keep the house.
We still rent a house for a month (even though the month is more like 4 weeks now). I've watched the lane have less than 50% occupancy (sometimes much less) while we have been there. It would be nice to go back to the days when people could take the summer off, or a month off, or even two weeks off from work. I still take two weeks off from work and nobody else in my office takes more than a week. Life is crazy now.
It's not clear to me that renting a house (?) for $150 to $1200 per night will encourage "transients". But if I was a homeowner and I had an empty house most of the summer because there are no "monthly or weekly" renters, then I would like to at least cover my property taxes by renting for weekends. This also assumes someone can get a ferry over for the weekend:) Maybe Uber supports the Airbnb model!
Please drive the price of housing down in Chilmark so I can afford to buy a house to stay in for the summer when I retire:)
If you are trying to create
Diane M Roseland (several times/year MVY visitor)If you are trying to create more affordable housing, then just do it. Is land available to construct affordable developments ? What are the issues to this approach ?
Seems like it is only overcomplicating the solution to look at taxing rentals. I rent in Edgartown several weeks/year . I also visit for a few shorter periods in October, April. For those I stay in a hotel, but would love to also be able to rent nightly at a home without it being a massive headache.
Add new comment