ROCKLAND – Beginning March 15, no new non-owner occupied short term rental applications may be processed in Rockland.

During the Monday, Feb. 12 City Council meeting, councilors voted three to two in favor of limiting the units to 45. Councilors Adam Ackor and Lisa Westkaemper both vetoed the idea.

“That cap, while it’s written to be permanent, is in fact, a place holder while the housing task force meets and decides how much it wants to do,” Mayor Valli Geiger said at the January 8 council meeting.

Geiger said at the time that the cap proposal came from complaints of darkening neighborhoods, primarily in the South End. Ackor disagreed.

“Many of the buildings I work on are owned by folks who are seasonal, and they chose not to rent their houses,” he said. “And so those houses sit dormant from, basically September to June. I’m much more in favor of free enterprise.”

Applicants already approved for non-owner occupied short term rentals will have until April 15, 2018 to re-apply for their permit.

After April 15, 2018, new applications may be issued in the order in which they are received until the maximum number reaches 45 if that number has not already been reached or exceeded. Each year all short term rental applications must be renewed before March 15.

Previously approved non-owner occupied short term rental applications shall be issued first. New applications for non-owner occupied short term rentals received during the course of the year may be issued after March 15, in the order in which they are received until the number reaches 45 or the number that were processed before April 15, 2018, whichever is greater.

Three applications for non-owner occupied short term rentals are currently on the February 20 agenda for review by the Rockland Planning Board.

For the purpose of this section, processed shall mean a completed application has been received, paid for and scheduled for Planning Board review.

See our previous article: Rockland short-term rental cap reignites affordable housing debate

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com