In the latest chapter of Nantucket’s debate over short-term rentals, the Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday voted unanimously to uphold the island building commissioner’s determination that short-term rentals in residential districts do not violate the island’s zoning bylaw.
In a case similar to previous challenges of short-term rentals on Nantucket through zoning enforcement requests, Silver Street resident Cathy Ward accused her neighbors Peter and Linda Grape of violating the town’s zoning bylaw by operating a short-term rental at their property on West Dover Street.
Calling short-term rentals “unsupervised mini-hotels,” Ward asked the Zoning Board members to enforce the town’s bylaw, and “save our neighborhoods.” She called the Grapes “absentee owners” and decried the noise and other disturbances from renters at their West Dover Street property.
“I can’t enjoy my deck with my family while renters are enjoying their party,” Ward said. “I simply ask the town of Nantucket to uphold the law. This is a residentially zoned area that is not zoned for commercial use…It’s turnover constantly, and this is akin to freedom of speech where I can’t yell fire in a theater. Just because you own a house doesn’t mean you should be able to rent it…Somewhere this has to end.”
Ward is a member of the new advisory committee of ACK Now, the non-profit group that attempted to restrict and regulate short term rentals on the island through a bylaw proposal that was defeated at Town Meeting in June. She submitted the zoning enforcement request to the town in September, which was denied by building commissioner Paul Murphy. The ACK Now organization is advising Ward in her appeal, and also helped pay for the filing fee.
Attorney Robert McLaughlin, who represented the Grape family, pushed back against the assertion that his clients are “absentee owners” of their Nantucket property. The Grapes, he said, come to the home dozens of times per year. Regardless, McLaughlin said, the use of the home is compliant with the town’s zoning bylaw.
“There’s no legs to the argument,” McLaughlin said of Ward’s zoning enforcement request. “It’s single-family zoning, and single-family use: it matters not who is the user. If it’s one family abiding by single family use or 10 families.”
A similar case unfolded last year at 14 New Mill Street, a legal effort that was funded by ACK Now and made it all the way to Massachusetts Land Court where it was dismissed after The Copley Group sold the property.
Ward and ACK Now believe their case is clearly supported by the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in the Styller v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Lynnfield case, which stated “short-term rental use of a one family home is inconsistent with the zoning purpose of the single-residence zoning district in which it is situated, i.e., to preserve the residential character of the neighborhood.”
That ruling has roiled the vacation rental home industry in Massachusetts, as well as municipalities like Nantucket that are under pressure to regulate or restrict short-term rentals.
McLaughlin was emphatic that the Styller case was so different from the Nantucket dispute on Dover Street that the SJC decision had no bearing. In Styller, he said, the short-term rental was being used for events, differentiating it from the what happens at the Grapes’ Dover Street home which is strictly rented by families and other visitors.
“Those who think it (the Styller case) is going to change the law on Nantucket? It’s not,” McLaughlin said. “The SJC is saying there’s a distinction between event use and single family use. It’s the event use that made it commercial, which is prohibited. The Grapes have never rented the property for any sort of event. It’s single family rentals.”
Attorney Melissa Philbrick, who is an abutter of the Dover Street property, also weighed in on the relevance of the Styller case and gave her thoughts on Ward’s appeal in general.
“It’s a destabilizing influence having the kind of transient activity behind us and in our neighborhood,” Philbrick said. “We have lived here for a long time and we tolerate a lot of noise. The noise from these kinds of transient rentals is qualitatively different. It’s unending and disrespectful.”
In the Styller case, Philbrick said, the justices noted that short-term rentals fueled by the use of online renting platforms like VRBO and Airbnb are fundamentally different from what has occurred in the past.
“I don’t think it’s grandfathered and I don’t think it’s customary,” Philbrick said. “These little hotels are commercial in character…This is unusual, unacceptable, and has really had a negative impact on our neighborhood.”
Zoning Board member Elisa Allen said the issues raised by Ward and Philbrick were better addressed through enforcement of the town’s noise bylaw, not zoning.
“They’re not breaking any laws,” Allen said of the Grapes. “Everyone who lives on Nantucket year-round or not year-round knows what it’s like to have renters nearby. I have renters next door and it’s part of the lifestyle here…It sounds like a noise problem, not a zoning problem.”
Several members of the Zoning Board of Appeals indicated they did not believe it was their role to “make policy” in the larger debate over short-term rentals by overturning building commissioner Paul Murphy’s denial of Ward’s zoning enforcement request. The ultimate decision on how the island should handle short-term rentals, they said, was better left to voters at Town Meeting.
“I understand both sides of the argument to some extent, but I’m not comfortable changing policy on this board,” said ZBA alternate member Geoff Thayer. “We’re moving toward the town taking this up at Town Meeting and I think that’s where it ought to be decided and hashed out. I don’t think it should happen here.”
Ward told the Current Tuesday that she was unsure whether she would appeal the ZBA’s ruling.
“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Ward said. “It’s too early to tell.”
