Town of Otis
Planning Board Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022
Call to order 7:04 PM
1. Roll Call:
Terry Cook-Visser- Chair
Mark Anthony
Jim Kauffman
Barbara Gallagher
2. Review of August Minutes
Jim motion to accept, Terry second, all in favor
3. Short Term Rental Bylaw Discussion
Partial exempt properties. Needs to explain what qualifies what partially exempt means and what they are exempt from
Reason for exemption, rooms in home, away from their home for part of year, or adjacent property,
Non exempt, business owned, non resident or non occupied, like a property purchased specifically for short term rental
Allows use of structure without having annual inspections or licensing fees, extra revenue for residents.
Goal is to create easier opportunity for those folks living here just for some extra revenue and not those doing only for business opportunity
Once they buy one home it creates revenue stream for property number 2 and 3 and 4
Trying to limit that business coming in to help the housing situation. There is no housing for those who want to live there.
Dumpsters cause issues with bears. Should be added to bylaw because people do not want to bring their trash to the transfer station themselves.
Zoning laws have the rules on adjacent property it is just already a legal precedent that is why 1 mile vs zero miles is different.
These issues being discussed may not be big yet but will become issues if boundaries are not created now.
Owner occupied and owner adjacent need to be permanent resident.
SEPTIC design- towns where there is city sewer- bedrooms don’t matter it is sewer usage, here we have septic, septic design is the issue. Trying to use existing rules and regulations to help with enforcement. Do not want a home rented as 4 or 5 bedrooms with a 2 bedroom septic system.
Issues with water use as well however this can not be regulated in the same way just something to be aware of.
Septic system. Currently owners are given 2 years to fix a fail on a septic system. Why would we allow a rental property to have a fail or partial pass?
Suggestion, give the homeowner a set amount of time to upgrade if not they can not get another license.
Fees: Annual fee, changed to $500 initial this includes $350 to inspection and license plus $150 application.
This is too high. State charges $500 per year
Clarify wording on what is included in fee,
Need to rewrite definitions, to be more clear
Adjacency, changed to residency, or something, would need to be a way to do primary and not just someone owning multiple properties to make all of them exempt.
Can change the wording later once we decide on an idea we want and come to an agreement.
Primary residence is in otis being exempt is something we seem to agree with.
Question. Adult 16 years not 18, concerned, strike it.
Process look like, pay a fee, then what before inspection, would need to work with town admin and health dep, can work through all properties when they register vs giving a deadline and having all pop up at once,
How to tell the people with STR this is changing and how to enforce rules, moving forward things will change and we will catch up, no way to go backward and undo what is already happening, work in progress, that is why we need to work together with board of health and other departments
Any thought of a penalty for not registering within a certain amount of time, if they come to us first that is easy, trying to find people who are already doing it will be hard to do, but yes penalties for breaking rules.
Reorganizing Partially exempt properties, in terms of language needs to be read like a legal document and is clearly defined,
Annettes comments on definitions and such is exactly what we need to work on
5.1 unclear, exempt properties need to comply or everyone needs to comply
Difficult to enforce 2 persons per bedroom but need to include something to enforce health dept guidelines
Larry will come back with new draft attempt to reorganize and clarify wording
Do we want to include dumpster in regulations, YES
Recycling rules, YES
Property owners required to facilitate recycling and trash removal
Are we interested in making residents exempt and not just the adjacent property owner, ex. Resident can have XX # of rentals, ONE
Everyone has an initial inspection, who needs an annual inspection?
Residents get one property that would not need the extra fees an inspections,
Comment. Some property owners fell into this and had a lot of questions to get started, AIR BNB made it very clear cut on how to register with the state, could be a possible avenue on these websites to help show them what the towns rules are and give a clear path on how to register and rules to follow, air bnb will force people to read the rules.
Great point, make it easy for those looking to start STR to understand and follow the rules.
Continue discussion at next meeting.
4. Any other business old or new.
5. Terry motion to adjourn 8:28 PM. Barb second. All in favor.