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Select Board schedules housing workshop; UMass short-term rental study to be part of April 22 session
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Summary
The board set a workshop for April 22 to gather housing stakeholders, hear a briefing on a University of Massachusetts short-term rental study, and review work by the Affordable Housing Trust and Mattakey/Madikeys Utilization Committee.
The Yarmouth Select Board agreed to hold a focused housing workshop on April 22 that will include the town’s housing stakeholders, the Affordable Housing Trust, the Community Housing Committee, the Yarmouth Housing Authority and members of the Mattakeys/Madikeys Utilization Committee. The meeting will be hybrid and will include a remote briefing by University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute staff conducting a short-term rental study for the town.
Board members said the session should be used to share what different committees are doing locally and to “close the loop” among groups that sometimes work separately. The agenda being developed will open with a briefing on the short-term rental study methodology and schedule; UMass project manager Carrie Spritzer (referenced in the meeting materials) is expected to join remotely to outline the study’s goals and the planned stakeholder interviews, including interviews with select board members.
Select Board members and staff emphasized priorities they want the workshop to address: (1) short-term rental impacts on the year-round rental market, (2) whether and how Community Preservation Act funds or other town resources could be used for targeted affordable-housing programs (examples cited: down-payment assistance, deed restrictions, or rental-supply interventions), and (3) potential town-owned redevelopment sites and wastewater constraints that affect where housing can be built.
Board members discussed the Forest Road housing proposal and said the town needs to consider wastewater constraints when assessing new housing locations. The board also asked to hear updates from the Affordable Housing Trust about its work on redevelopment of blighted parcels and from the Mattakeys Utilization Committee (MUC) on its prioritization of possible uses for the site referenced in recent committee work.
Why it matters: The workshop seeks to align multiple local committees and the Select Board around practical, near-term options and to gather data to inform any policy changes. The UMass short-term rental study is intended to give the town local data on how rentals are used and whether regulation or revenue measures would affect housing availability.
Next steps: The Select Board will host the April 22 workshop and invited stakeholder groups to present. UMass will interview Select Board members as part of the short-term rental study’s stakeholder outreach; staff will share a final agenda and logistics for the April 22 session.
