At its Tuesday, September 24, meeting, the Warren Select Board continued to discuss and revise a draft ordinance that, if passed, would create a registry for Short Term Rental (STR) properties in the town.
Board members talked at length about the data collection involved and who would be responsible for managing it, as the town plans to draw on data housed in the registry and from other sources – like assessor data created by listers – to better understand whether STRs are negatively impacting the availability of long-term housing.
If the town finds that the growth and persistence of STRs has diminished its long-term housing stock, local leaders could decide to regulate STRs, as other towns across Vermont and the larger U.S. have done in recent years.
Town officials in Warren have repeatedly stressed that they will only regulate STRs after they see hard data.
Likewise, the town of Waterbury is currently working on an ordinance that would create a registry for rental properties, including STRs, and has stated that the main goal, for now, is data collection rather than regulation.
Software from Granicus, a global company that provides cloud-based technology and services for governments, will aid Warren in keeping a registry and map of STR properties. Warren budgeted about $27,000 for the software package this year – approved by voters on Town Meeting Day last March.
Warren Planning Commission member Macon Phillips said he understood the overall goal to be getting at how many STRs exist in the town and how many of these are owned by those who primarily live in Warren. “Can we put a number on that?” he asked at the planning commission’s Monday night meeting.
Planning commission chair Dan Raddock added that the town is already beginning to uncover these numbers, as representatives from Granicus found listings for nearly 600 different STRs on vacation rental websites in February 2024, with 95% of those listings being entire homes – although it’s unclear how many are Accessory Dwelling Units or condominiums in the ski area.
The median nightly rate for STR listings last February, according to Granicus, was $278.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, board members moved meticulously through the draft ordinance, which was written by the town’s planning commission last spring, making a series of changes – including a rewrite of the ordinance’s purpose.
Select board members omitted text that previously laid out the benefits of STRs (additional income for STR owners, places for visitors to stay and a strong tourist economy), as well as the perceived negative impacts (a reduction in the number of long-term rental units, impacts on neighbors and greater demands on the town’s emergency services). Although the purpose of the ordinance is still to collect data, the draft now reads that “the Town of Warren values a sense of community that is derived from being a good neighbor, respecting the surrounding environment and demonstrating regard for health and safety.”
Select board member Camilla Behn said the previous draft version had language perceived by STR owners as “very punitive” and “accusatory.”
“I think a lot of our STR owners are feeling like we’re trying to drive them out,” she said.
Additionally, while a previous version of the draft included regulations around health and safety for STRs, several select board members said they were not comfortable posing any regulations until the town has data, but would like to include health and safety guidelines as defined by the state and the town’s Land Use Regulations.
In the meantime, if the ordinance passes in an upcoming select board meeting, it would require STR owners to register their properties with the town, provide certain information about their rentals and pay a registration fee – to be determined in an upcoming board meeting.
