Select Board debates nonrefundable STR application fee and creates appeals board

Select Board members and working-group participants debated changes to the short-term rental (STR) application and fee process, including a proposed $150 administrative fee to cover staff time when a submitted compliance plan is rejected.

A working-group representative (Speaker 6) described the rationale: the fee would ‘‘cover several hours of work’’ for intake, inspection and review, and the group also discussed making application fees nonrefundable to discourage premature, speculative payments. Board members emphasized that paying a fee does not constitute a license and that exceptions for good-faith applicants could be written into the fee-schedule language.

Discussion produced consensus around a model in which the application fee is nonrefundable in cases where processing has begun, but a narrow refund could be allowed for applicants who have not used the property as a rental and who withdraw early in the discovery phase. One select board member said staff should retain discretion for minimal cases; another recommended the nonrefundable language be explicit on application forms to change behavior and reduce administrative churn.

Separately, the board approved members for the STR appeals board. The board moved to appoint the town clerk Allison, Maureen Cronin as a justice of the peace, Paul Handler (DRB representative), Rich Phelan (emergency services) and Lianne Alexander to serve one-year terms pending attorney review. The board agreed to revisit term lengths after the first year of operation.