Chester residents call for more short-term rental regulations

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Wednesday, several Chester residents attended the Select Board meeting to tell members that they want more regulation of short-term rentals before it’s too late and that neighborhoods like the Stone Village are full of “empty houses for tourists.”

The topic was on the board’s agenda because at its June 7 meeting, board chair Arne Jonynas he wanted to see the discussion “sooner rather than later … The houses that are going for sale in small residential neighborhoods are being bought up and turned into unhosted” rentals.

Unfortunately though, the board did not have the data it was expecting in June because – Granicus – the company the town had hired to gather data and create a registry — was months behind schedule. At last week’s meeting though, Planning Commission chair Hugh Quinn gave the board an overview of Chester’s short-term rental market using data provided by Granicus with some interpretation by members of the commission.

The Granicus data shows there are 64 short-term rentals in Chester with 57 of those being unhosted and 17 advertising a capacity of more than eight guests. According to the figures presented to the board, only two operators own more than one property. Their analysis of the data puts number of STRs at 4 percent of the number of dwellings in the town.

Since last fall The Telegraph has been monitoring the number of short-term rentals through listings in Airbnb, VRBO and other hosting platforms. While the number of rentals and locations found by Granicus aligns with Telegraph research, the interpretation does not.

The percentage of STRs is based on an approximation of the number of dwellings being 1,761, but the total number of parcels on the grand list is 1,865, which includes about 220 parcels of open land as well as business and municipal properties and camps. It is difficult to come up with an exact number of dwellings, but it’s conceivable that the number is lower and therefore the percentage of STRs in the housing stock is higher.

And while the town’s interpretation of the Granicus numbers shows only two multiple rental operators, the number may be as many six when business and individual ownerships of STRs are cross referenced.

Neighbors ask for ‘a line in the sand’

We struggled to get the basic registration,” said Jonynas, noting that other businesses are regulated and must get proper permits. “Why aren’t these regulated like other businesses?”

Board member Heather Chase said the town’s response needed to be measured to avoid unforeseen consequences. She noted that tourism is the second biggest economic driver in Vermont and that the use of short-term rentals is “a trend that’s way bigger than Chester, Vermont.”

The majority of those coming to ask for stricter regulations were residents of the Stone Village, which has already has a number of unhosted STRs and several houses for sale or recently purchased. Article continues below.

---

RELATED ARTICLES

• July 2020: S. Vermont in ‘crazy’ real estate sales boom.
• Oct. 3: Hollowed Community? Residents ring alarm over growth of unhosted short-term rentals
• Editorial Oct. 3, 2022: Regulate unhosted short-term rentals.
• Oct. 3, 2022: Different approaches: How area towns are addressing the issue of short-term rentals
• Dec. 12, 2022: Chester board adopts short-term rental ordinance
• March 22, 2023: Short-term rentals: Towns’ pace for regulation between snail and speedy
• July 26, 2023: Work on Chester’s delayed short-term rental registry to move forward

---

“My concern is not short-term rentals, it’s unhosted short-term rentals,” said Stone Village resident Kathy Giurtino who added that unhosted rentals are not needed for tourism. “We have the motel, we have the Fullerton and several hosted short-term rentals,” said Giurtino. She then referred to a home across from hers that was purchased, she said, “sight unseen” by someone from New Jersey just three days after being listed.

“You tell me he’s coming here to live. Maybe he is and that would be good, but the odds are, right across the street from us we’re going to have another unhosted short-term rental. That’s one less house a family can move into.”

Referring to owners of unhosted rentals Giurtino said, “They don’t care about our community except what they can take from it.”

Giurtino told the board that she was raised in Perkinsville but didn’t move back there because it doesn’t have a store, a Post Office, a school and barely a church, where she remains one of three members. “It’s not a place to grow older,” she said, adding that she moved to Chester because it’s “a full, active community.” But the town needs young people to keep the schools open and be a part of the community.

“This is the place to draw a line in the sand,” said Giurtino, pointing to Morristown, which has banned new unhosted short-term rentals. Giurtino would like to see Chester do the same with current unhosted rentals able to continue until that house sells.

Stone Village resident Ed Grossman said that when he and his wife moved here six years ago it was a great community with great neighbors. But as short-term rentals grow on his street, there’s less of a sense of that community. Grossman asked the board to “give serious consideration to regulating the number of unhosted short-term rentals. It affects the community.”

Meadow Road resident Nick Boke pointed to three sales in his area where at least one is being offered as an unhosted short-term rental. “One out of three,” said Boke, “I think that’s important.”

The board went on to discuss the mechanics of limiting or banning unhosted rentals, which included ideas about how to come up with a number of allowed rentals, how to determine who would be allowed to rent and for how long and whether it would be a good idea to set limits by zoning districts.

Board member Lee Gustafson said he wanted the board to be aware of the unintended consequences of limiting any kind of rentals – hosted or unhosted. Gustafson was concerned that restricting or banning unhosted rentals would lower the amount of money sellers would be able to get for their houses. He noted that people are asking more for their properties because they can get it.

“I think that if short-term, unhosted rentals were eliminated or stopped right where they’re at, the market would settle down and yes, they wouldn’t get as much money for their houses, but we would still keep our community,” said Giurtino.

The board reviewed a list of options for regulating the STRs provided by Quinn and decided it would wait to hear how the “kick off” meeting with the Granicus project manager went on Friday, Aug. 4 and revisit the topic at the next board meeting in September.