GREAT BARRINGTON — A proposal that would dramatically lower the number of short-term rentals available in Great Barrington has been referred to the Planning Board after a public input session of more than two and half hours last night.
Among the 25 or so who spoke out at the meeting of the Selectboard–Planning Board Housing Subcommittee, there were sharp differences of opinion between advocates of the proposal put forward by selectboard member and owners of homes used as short-term rentals through companies such as Airbnb. One owner of a Great Barrington estate he rented out for events called the methodology cited by proponents of Davis’ idea “asinine.”
The proposal, crafted and revised by selectboard vice chair Leigh Davis, would forbid operators of short-term rentals (STRs) from renting residential units or rooms not located within the operator’s primary residence or on the same tax parcel as the operator’s primary residence.
In other words, out-of-towners who buy residential properties in the town would not be allowed to rent them out for fewer than 28 consecutive days, which is how Davis defines STRs. Davis has examined similar proposals made in other Massachusetts communities, including Somerville and Cambridge.
See Edge video of last night’s joint meeting between the Selectboard and the Planning Board concerning a proposal that would restrict certain property owners from operating short-term rentals:
Town Planner Chris Rembold laid out the pros and cons of Davis’ proposal and provided housing statistics for the town. Click here to see his fact sheet. There are 3,600 housing units in Great Barrington, with a zero percent rental vacancy rate.
Rembold noted that the median gross rent of renter-occupied units is $900 per month, but a short-term rental at $150 per night would equal that return in only six nights. According to the assessor’s office, there are 415 second homes in Great Barrington, or 12 percent of the town’s total housing units.
According to the state Department of Revenue, Great Barrington has 200 short-term rental registrations, approximately 56 of which (or 28 percent) are second homes. Approximately 90 percent of the 200 STR listings are for entire homes.
At a subcommittee meeting earlier in October, Davis had raised the possibility of restricting short-term rental owners to full-time residents. She suggested this would discourage out-of-town investors from buying up homes to offer on the STR market, taking those properties off the long-term rental market and/or driving up the cost of home rentals or ownership for full-time residents. Davis later presented her proposal to the subcommittee on October 28.
Several members of the Planning Board expressed some skepticism about Davis’ proposal, as did selectboard member Ed Abrahams. One member of the Selectboard, Eric Gabriel, recused himself from any involvement in the matter because he was advised by the state Ethics Commission to do so. Gabriel owns and rents some homes in the town. Great Barrington resident Gabrielle Senza wanted to know if Planning Board member Jonathan Hankin, a broker for Berkshire Property Agents who also owns a number of properties in town, would recuse himself. Hankin declined.
One of the drawbacks of STRs cited by Rembold sparked a spirited debate about lack of affordable housing: “Competition with limited supply of residential housing … any unit that is a short-term rental is not a long-term rental, and also is not an affordable housing unit.”
“Twenty years ago, pages and pages of rentals were in the Shopper News and then when Airbnb came in in 2008, we watched the number of rentals advertised in the Shopper decrease,” said Laura Knoepler, who lives on Prospect Street in Housatonic. “Yes, you could call this anecdotal evidence, but I think we all know we’ve got a tremendous problem.”
Knob Hill Road resident Dan Ruderman said part of his own home could be rented out as an STR, though he does not do it. Ruderman likened the contrast between STRs and long-term rentals to that of a chop shop versus an auto dealership: the car is worth more broken into pieces. Ruderman added that “a tsunami of short-term rentals drowns everyone.”
“If we continue to let short-term rentals go unabated and unregulated, that’s what we’re facing,” Ruderman said, who later wrote of his frustration on the Great Barrington Community Board Facebook page. “We all see what the leading indicator is and I think the billboard .. across from Plaza Package was a big wake up call to everybody.”
The billboard in question is on State Road across from Plaza Package and it urges homeowners to “monetize your vacation home.” The advertiser is the MerGo Group, which bills itself as “Your All-In-One Real Estate Investment Solution.”
As luck would have it, one of the MerGo partners was attending the Zoom meeting and identified himself as Lucas Merchant. According to MerGo’s website, Merchant is the founder of the Boston-based company and head of brokerage and vacation rentals.
Merchant said he and his company own several vacation properties and very much consider themselves members of the community because they are in town frequently. Merchant complained about a lack of data and statistics he heard at the meeting and faulted the methodology behind Davis’s proposal.
“I live in Boston, and to compare Great Barrington to Somerville is also, I think, kind of irrelevant,” Merchant said of the formerly gritty Boston suburb that has become increasingly gentrified. “The housing problems they’re seeing in Somerville are very different from a town like Great Barrington.”
“This is about limiting people’s use-rights for the properties they have paid for,” added Justin Henderson, who until recently rented out a Hurlburt Road estate for events. “Comparing this to an investor in some random town that came in and bought 100 properties is asinine, so all we are talking about is emotion, conjecture and anecdotes.”
Henderson added that if Davis’ proposal is enacted, he would probably be forced to sell his property for in excess of $2 million, which he said would not help the town’s affordable housing stock at all.
Henderson, who at times appeared to be shouting, recently tangled with the town over zoning violations. In September, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected his appeal of a cease-and-desist order issued by building inspector Ed May ordering Henderson and his wife Abigail to stop using the residentially-zoned property as a “commercial event venue.”
Both boards finally voted unanimously to refer Davis’ proposal to the Planning Board, which will be charged with drafting a bylaw.
