Antrim Police sound alarm on unregulated AirBnB rentals

Antrim Police

Antrim Police FILE PHOTO

By JESSECA TIMMONS

Monadnock Ledger Transcript

Published: 09-24-2024 1:59 PM

Modified: 09-26-2024 8:29 AM


The Antrim Planning Board is drafting an ordinance on how to manage problems caused by short-term rentals after the police department raised concerns about ongoing issues with at least one property. In a letter to the Select Board, Chief of Police John Blake stated that one short term rental property marketed though AirBnB and other short term rental websites has required frequent police presence.

“We sat down and talked about this issue, and Chief Blake told us that his department has been out to one property six times, and that they have repeatedly had to eject people from the property. The owner of that property is basically using our police department as her property management company,” said Planning Board member John Anderson. “We should not be allowing businesses like this that have no local oversight. This is taxing our resources, there is liability, it is a nightmare for the town.”

Planning Board Chair Mark Murdough agreed.

“If our police officers are being called to deal with out of town guests at a property with no oversight, then other things they have to do for the good of our residents are just getting pushed down the list,” Murdough said.

Carol Ogilvie, planning consultant for the Town of Antrim, said she had been researching town ordinance on short term rentals in New Hampshire and found that many towns restrict short term rental properties to 30 consecutive days.

“The purpose of limiting the number of days is to prevent out-of-town companies, like people who live in California and have a hundred of these properties, from buying up homes in Antrim and just renting them out with no oversight,” Anderson said. “With local people who live on site or nearby, there is no issue.”

Murdough noted that Antrim currently has about 20 short term rentals, but that most of them are locally owned and managed and do not cause any problems for the town.

“Local people who are onsite are not the problem,” he said.

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The board voted to add language to the draft of the ordinance limiting short term rentals with offsite management to 90 days a year.

“No one is going to buy an investment property here of they can only rent it out for 90 days of the year,” Anderson said.

The board discussed consequences and oversight for property owners who violate town ordinance, including fines and rescinding the property owner’s permit. Anderson shared a short-term rental permit application currently used by the town of Freedom, NH, which addresses issues which typically caused by short term rentals.

“AirBnB will not allow people to use the site without a valid permit from the town, and it is hard to run these businesses without being hosted on a site like AirBnB,” Anderson said.

Overlay district draft discussed

The Planning Board continued to work on the draft of ordinance creating overlay zoning district in Antrim’s village. The board has stated that the purpose of the overlay district is to encourage and enable more housing in the village area, which is served by town sewer and water, eliminating the need for septic system requirements.

“What we want is more opportunities to increase housing stock,” Murdough said.

Currently, Antrim requires two acres per new home.

“What we want to do is allow and enable smaller size homes for people who want smaller homes. Smaller lots are more affordable for people, and will create more options,” Anderson said. “We are not trying to restrict larger homes, as some people want larger homes. What we’re trying to do is allow smaller, more affordable homes on smaller lots and take advantage of the infrastructure in the village.”

The board voted to include language about lot setbacks, orientation of homes on the lot, and garage placements to enable consistency in the character of the village.

“I have seen, when I lived in Massachusetts, developers come in build houses that cover the entire lot, and we don’t want that,” board member Lynn Rosansky said.

For more information about the Antrim Planning Board go to https://www.antrimnh.org/plan ni ng -board.