Superior Court Judge Samuel Hoar ruled this week that Burlington has broad authority to regulate short-term rentals in the city.
A group of property owners sued last year, claiming that the city overstepped its authority when it passed restrictions on short-term rentals — they include a requirement that, in most cases, property owners live on the same lot or building as the short-term rental. The city can issue a $100 ticket for violations of the ordinance.
Burlington’s ordinance defines short-term rentals as units that are rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days, and for more than 14 days in a 12-month period.
The lawsuit claimed that state law only allows regulation of short-term rentals for the purpose of promoting a municipality's health, safety and welfare, and that duration limits and occupancy requirements for rentals don’t promote any of the categories spelled out in the statute.
But Hoar, in a Nov. 19 decision, wrote state law clearly allows municipalities to impose these regulations, and that the city's intention with the ordinance was to promote more long-term housing in the city, which is a public benefit.
“The relationship between a lack of available long-term housing and strains on the housing market, with impacts on homelessness, is intuitive, as is the consequent impact on a municipality’s general welfare,” Hoar said in his decision. “Thus, the City’s regulation of short-term rentals bears an obvious and rational relation to public welfare, health, and safety.”
Burlington is not the only Vermont municipality to consider regulating short-term rentals. An analysis last year found homes listed on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo have grown rapidly, raising concerns that short-term rentals are taking housing units out of the rental market and making the state’s housing crisis worse.
Advocates for the short-term rental industry have argued that they shouldn’t be scapegoated for the state’s housing shortage, and that a patchwork of regulations could hurt Vermont’s tourism economy.
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