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Select Board weighs short-term rental warrant articles after judge’s order and Lake Tahoe ruling
Summary
With a Town Meeting warrant containing multiple short-term rental articles, Select Board members debated whether to endorse Article 66 and awaited a recent court order; Town counsel said a judge has requested further briefing and warned of litigation risk if zoning is not resolved by voters.
Select Board members spent a substantial portion of their March 19 meeting reviewing possible Select Board comments for Annual Town Meeting articles addressing short-term rentals, and heard from Town Counsel about a newly issued court order tied to pending litigation.
John Georgio, the town’s counsel, told the board that “Judge Veil today did issue an order in which he's asked the parties for further briefing on the issues that were litigated at the trial.” Georgio said the order must be analyzed and that he would provide the board a memorandum on the order and an analysis of the recent South Lake Tahoe decision, but on a confidential basis because the matter is in active litigation. He warned the board that if zoning is not resolved at Town Meeting, the town risks losing local control in litigation and that “if you're sued for a constitutional violation and the party prevails, the court would likely award attorneys fees for the prevailing party.”
Discussion among board members focused on three citizen warrant articles (66, 67, 68) and the long-standing recommendation from the Short-Term Rental Workgroup to codify allowances in the zoning bylaw while regulating details in the General Bylaw. Several board members expressed preference for a combined approach — “codify in zoning and regulate in general by law” — but acknowledged Town Meeting previously rejected companion general bylaw language and that passing a standalone zoning codification may not achieve the intended balance.
Select Board member Matt said he would recuse himself if the board moves to make outreach or comment on short-term rental articles. Several members noted the recent South Lake Tahoe decision (a court ruling that invalidated a local STR ban on interstate commerce grounds) and debated whether the town’s proposed articles adequately address commerce-clause concerns. Georgio said some articles could be crafted to avoid regulating based solely on residency, but his advice was that combining zoning and a companion general bylaw (a package presented together) is the strongest path to preserve local control.
Georgio committed to providing the board a confidential memo with the judge’s order and an analysis of the Lake Tahoe decision so the Select Board can weigh litigation risk and decide whether to submit Select Board comments or draft alternative articles before the warrant is finalized next week.
