Committee: town using third‑party monitoring and impact fees to improve short‑term rental enforcement

Committee members described several enforcement tools the town is using to police short‑term rentals and ensure affordable units remain deed‑restricted.

Bill Clark explained the town recently hired a firm to monitor listing platforms and that the town adopted a community impact fee on short‑term rentals: “We adopted the community impact fee recently... 35% of that has to go to either affordable housing or infrastructure,” he said. Clark said the monitoring firm “vacuum[s] up all the VRBO, Airbnb” listings and helps the town identify noncompliant units.

Committee members also discussed registering deed restrictions and noting special permits on building cards so that violations can be identified during property due diligence. Clark said enforcement remains difficult but is improving: fines and contract conditions can be used where deed restrictions are violated.

Members agreed enforcement and better registration of restrictions are part of implementing any year‑round or affordable‑unit rules; staff were asked to continue coordinating assessing, building, and engineering records to flag noncompliant properties.