At the council’s September 9th meeting, Pittsfield City Planner Kevin Rayner explained how leaders settled on the ordinance’s 150 rental day per year cap.
“So, we wanted to balance, how many days does it become more of a short-term rental than a housing situation?" he told the body. "And also, what makes it not worth it for an investor or somebody who wants to make money off of a short-term rental, what is not worth it anymore in terms of how many days they can rent it out per year?”
At-large city councilor Alisa Costa said Pittsfield’s move on short-term rentals had to take the ongoing housing crisis into account.
“A recent study from UMass Donahue institute that just came out, 23% of Pittsfield home sales have been by investors since 2004," she noted. "Not all investment is negative, but I think when we look at short-term rentals and we and we hear numbers like there's 200 and something, or 300 and something- It doesn't sound like a lot, [but] I'm not sure we're capturing it all, and I think it's really important that we do, one, because housing is such a critical issue right now, we have a huge shortage of housing in Berkshire County and across the region.”
Ward 6 City Councilor Dina Lampiasi led an unsuccessful effort to lower the cap to 90 days, tying the issue to an ongoing debate around policies for Pittsfield’s unhoused residents.
“As we're talking about the camping ban ordinance, which is tied to so many other social problems that we have in the city that are actually national problems, we have a very real issue of housing, and this is not helping our housing," she said. "I'm concerned about it, and I would like for us to have a lower threshold there.”
Rayner explained that without clear definitions of short-term rentals, the city’s ability to handle complaints about them is deeply compromised.
“If you complain about a short-term rental right now, there is no ordinance," he said. "So, if you make a zoning complaint, the zoning enforcement officer, our building commissioner, will say, there's no ordinance, I can't do anything about this complaint. He'll drive out to the property, look at the house, say, hey, that's a house- Is it a short-term rental? I don't know. We don't have any definition of what a short-term rental is. So, what happens is, the person who made the complaint gets frustrated, reasonably, and they appeal the decision that goes to our local Zoning Board of Appeals, where they then have to decide what is a short-term rental. And they would then have to defend that decision in court if it got appealed further. So, the ZBA gets put into a very tricky position, because there's no definition or process of what a short-term rental is in our zoning ordinance or in our code.”
The new ordinance defines a short-term rental as any rental for 30 consecutive days or less for a residential property, the operators of which must register with the city and be thoroughly vetted in advance.
As it stands, there is no specific plan to monitor enforcement of the cap on short-term rentals.
“There is an amount of good faith," admitted Rayner, "Because you're right, it's a large burden that would go on city staff. I think some parts of the zoning are harder to enforce than others, but it's more of a guideline to how these things should operate, because I don't think you're going to be able to catch them unless we were actually actively tracking like Airbnb- And you can certainly get a consultant to do that, but I don't think that that's something that the city of Pittsfield would need."
Enforcement would fall on multiple bodies within city government, including the building commissioner.
“He will enforce the zoning portion of it, the code portion of it, the licensing, will be enforced by several departments – the police, fire, health and building – will then direct that enforcement action to the licensing board, who will then hear from the license holder, as well as abutters to the property, and will then discern the situation and take action on the license,” said Rayner.
The Pittsfield City Council ultimately adopted the new short-term rental regulations in a 10-1 vote with Ward 3 councilor Matthew Wrinn in opposition.
Audio is provided by Pittsfield Community Television.
