NAHANT– The Planning Board and Short Term Housing committee held consecutive meetings on Tuesday to further address the short-term rental problem. After the.last Planning Board meeting, which was on Oct. 4, no conclusion was decided at that meeting and no advice came from the Planning Board to the Short Term Housing committee. The Planning Board only serves as an advice maker on the short-term rental issue.
The Short Term Housing committee specifically talked about houses with pools, when a swimming pool or hot tub, or a special purpose pool was included in the short term rental lease, or when a pool or hot tub is rented, the determination must be documented by the Board of Health.
Owners who have pool houses need an additional permit to operate short-term rentals to ensure safety.
The house owners are also obligated to instruct their short-term guests about waste disposal. Short-term housing is responsible for providing proof of enough storage space for trash prior to final disposal.
Resident Cora Long brought up the problem that if a single family pays the same trash fee whether they are involved in an Airbnb or not, what happens if the Airbnb guests accumulate 10 barrels of trash, because then the extra cost would go back to every resident.
Town attorney Dan Skrip explained they could decide that short-term rentals could be identified as commercial property on the trash recycling fee basis.
“We have had an Airbnb unit for two and a half years, and they generate less trash than when my kids come to visit,” Christopher Whitlock, a resident in Nahant for 25 years, “I don’t want to solve a problem that actually doesn’t exist, and I am happy to pay any fee that realistically gets generated by having guests.”
Whitlock thought there should be more research on what actually happens at an Airbnb.
The Short Term Housing committee did not make a change on the issue of liability insurance. As long as there is liability insurance, it does not matter who is buying it whether it is the owner or the Airbnb platform.
