BERLIN – Officials in Berlin are expected to consider a delay in the implementation of new short-term rental regulations in the coming weeks.
The Berlin Town Council is expected to discuss delaying implementation of the short-term rental ordinance that was supposed to go into effect July 1. Property owners currently operating short-term rentals already have reservations for this summer and are asking officials to let them finish the season.
“They’ve been asking me as well as the mayor and council members if they could delay to January 1 so they can get through this year’s reservations,” Planning Director Dave Engelhart said.
In March, the council voted 3-2 to approve an ordinance setting up short-term rental regulations for the town. Though officials initially discussed a requirement to allow short-term rentals in the R-1 and R-2 districts only if the home was the owner’s primary residence per state records, the ordinance presented last month did not include that provision. Mayor Zack Tyndall acknowledged he’d removed it after hearing concern about it. Dozens of residents in attendance for the March public hearing, however, said they felt it was necessary to protect Berlin’s neighborhoods. In the end, the council’s approval of the ordinance came after it was amended to work the owner occupancy requirement back in.
In the weeks following the approval, Tyndall made it clear he would not be signing the ordinance, as he didn’t support the primary residence requirement.
At last week’s council meeting, Engelhart asked officials to consider delaying implementation of the ordinance until January. He said since the ordinance was approved, he’d heard from people currently operating rentals who’d asked to be able to continue to operate so they could fulfill reservations they’d already accepted. A delay would also provide the town with more time to set up the requisite inspections and other new procedures required by the short-term rental ordinance.
Engelhart noted that there were several residences in town being used as short-term rentals, as they were not previously prohibited.
“We didn’t have a prohibition and we didn’t have an allowance,” he said.
Engelhart said that while the implementation date was up for discussion, he was not currently accepting applications but was advising property owners to wait for a council decision.
“It’ll probably be a discussion June 27,” he said.
