The Stowe selectboard is considering strict limits on how property owners can rent out their homes on platforms such as AirBnB and VRBO.
The move is being driven by an acute housing shortage in the ski resort town, which selectboard chair Francis "Paco" Aumand says has been exacerbated by the increase in out-of-town property owners renting out their homes to tourists.
“Basically our goal was to help curb, or decrease the loss of long-term housing units,” Aumand said. “There’s a large school of thought that the homestead population is decreasing with the increased demand for seasonal or vacation homes.”
The board is still debating the changes, Aumand said, but one of the most controversial provisions would bar out-of-town property owners from renting their homes on a short-term basis.
People who currently own houses in Stowe, but don’t live there full time, would be allowed to continue renting those properties. But if that house sells, the new owner would not be allowed to use it as a short-term rental.
Aumand acknowledged the challenge of supporting the vacation economy in Stowe, which has a ski mountain and year-round visitors who spend their money at galleries, restaurants and shops.
But if the people who work in those establishments can’t find a place to live, then he says the entire economy is jeopardized.
“It’s an affordability issue in a lot of people’s minds,” Aumand said. “The challenge is figuring out the economic impact to the community in regards to further regulating short-term rentals. And I think that’s a large question to be answered.”
Other Vermont municipalities have passed short-term rental ordinances that require registrations along with health and safety requirements. Some have gone further. Burlington, for instance, requires most owners to reside on site in order to rent out their properties. Vermont Short Term Rental Alliance executive director Julie Marks said if Stowe moves ahead with its proposed ordinance it would be by far the most restrictive in the state.
“We are really concerned about what happens in Stowe. A lot of our other communities are watching and looking to Stowe as a precedent setter.”Julie Marks, Vermont Short Term Rental Alliance
“We are really concerned about what happens in Stowe,” Marks said. “A lot of our other communities are watching and looking to Stowe as a precedent setter.”
Marks said similar ordinances in other states have been challenged in the courts, with some courts giving the state authority to limit what owners can do with their properties, and others siding with the property owners.
Marks would not say if her organization would challenge a new ordinance in Stowe, but stressed how important it was for Vermont’s short-term rental owners to keep an eye on how the discussion plays out in Stowe.
“Almost half of our entire vacation rental economy lies at the foothills of ski resorts, and in those communities,” she said. “So we will be very intentional around how we respond to what Stowe does so that there are not wider negative effects to the industry across the state.”
Stowe adopted a short-term rental ordinance about a year ago that required homeowners to register their rental properties, and the selectboard has the authority to update that ordinance without a public vote. It would, however, have to hold public hearings before finalizing the changes.
Barbara Getty owns a property management company in Stowe that employs 12 people who clean and maintain short-term rentals, and she said it's wrong to connect the housing crisis to the number of short-term rentals in town.
She said the entire state is facing a housing and affordability crisis and not allowing property owners the freedom to make decisions about their houses is not going to make it any easier to build or buy a home.
“I think that they are barking up the wrong tree,” Getty said. “They are not going to solve the affordable housing issue on the backs of short-term rental owners.”
