Brewster To Charge $300 For Short-term Rental Registration

BREWSTER – After three public hearings, the town has unveiled a final draft of regulations for the short-term rentals. Brewster voters approved the drawing up of rules at town meeting earlier this year.

“There’s been a lot of discussion leading up to the regulations,” Town Planner Jon Idman told the select board Monday. “The task force produced a report. A short-term rental bylaw for registration and inspection was approved at town meeting and by the Attorney General.”

The town is requiring that short-term rentals be registered and inspected in accordance with state law and establishing a fee of $300 to cover staffing and costs. That will grant each property owner a certificate of registration.

The requirements will begin in January and the certificate will be good through the end of the year. 

“The time allows the owners to adjust and the town to do back office work,” Idman said. “Registration will identify the units to be inspected.” 

The certificate can be renewed for the following year prior to Nov. 1. Any outstanding violations of building, sanitary, zoning or fire code, unpaid taxes, etc. will prevent renewal. Units designated for affordable housing cannot be repurposed as short-term rentals.

“The registration is to provide detail,” Idman said. “We adjusted the regulations based on comments from the select board and public. We tried to keep the regulations as basic as possible and we reviewed regulations from other towns.”

There are also rules about parking, occupancy limits, advertising, trash collection, sanitation, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, record keeping (for three years), and collecting the rooms occupancy tax.

The state’s short-term rental public registry lists more than 1,300 listings in Brewster. The town’s estimate is close to that, plus or minus 1,200, and that figure was used in setting the $300 fee. In addition to two new full-time employees (a permitting clerk and building inspector), the town expects to use the registration revenue to hire a “host compliance” vendor. Existing administrative and inspection staff will be used in an all-hands-on-deck style initially, according to Idman. In the future the building department will handle the inspections.

“The registrations will provide data for the town to help them address decisions on short-term rental policy,” Idman said. 

The board will vote on approving the regulations at its next meeting on Aug. 31. Startup expenses will need to be approved at the fall special town meeting, which was set for Monday, No. 16, pending consultation with the school department. The time of the meeting might be shifted to 5 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m. 

“We’ll need funding for startup expenses,” Town Manager Peter Lombardi noted. “Thereafter fees will cover the cost of the program.”