ROCKLAND – During its January 8 meeting, Rockland City Council members heard an earful from short-term rental contractors who do business in Rockland. Following the announcement last week that the Rockland City Council may vote to cap the number of non-owner occupied short-term rentals (STR), opponents voiced negative opinions of the idea.

There are currently 41 such rentals in Rockland, four fewer than the current allotment designated by the city, according to City Manager Tom Luttrell. However, after hearing complaints from residents regarding darkening neighborhoods, Mayor Valli Geiger initially proposed a moratorium in order to research the issue further. The council, in turn, decided at the Jan. 3 agenda-setting meeting that a cap would be a less sloppy way of allowing more consideration.

The majority of those houses that are dark for most of the year are in the South End, according to Geiger.

For some residents and contractors, the news of a cap again fueled frustration in the interpretation of affordable housing versus a tourism-based economy. 

Contractor Steve Miller and rental provider Polly Saltonstall told council that they’ve each incurred great costs in renovations to their rentals. Installing sprinklers and completing code expectations have taken the financial toll that now leads to high rent prices.

“I’ve knocked my head against the wall trying to figure out a correlation between affordable housing and short-term rentals,” Miller said. “I don’t even know why it’s an issue, personally.”

Miller spoke of a rental that he leases for $1,200. He didn’t want to do a week, but more than 30 days puts him out of the STR category.

“Short-term rental in Rockland is July and August,” he said. “Two months. That’s it. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. That’s the rental season.”

The rest of the year, his rental is leased monthly at the same rate, not including utilities.

“Most people in Rockland can’t afford that,” he said. “But I’m not going to lower the rent. Don’t blame the landlord for not having affordable housing.... Is the issue that it’s higher rent, or the summer rentals, or is the real issue around here that there’s just not the job market that people can afford?”

Saltonstall, who provides STRs in Rockland, spoke on the importance of maintaining the housing stock.

“Telling property owners they can’t offer properties or rooms for rent for periods less than a month is not going to result in more affordable housing. It’s going to put a chill on economic investment in the city,” Saltonstall said. “Like it or not, tourism and summer businesses have been, and will continue to be, a growing part of Rockland’s economy.”

In response to the contractors’ statements, Geiger first invited Miller to join the new housing task force, then said that her STR cap ordinance was not created with affordable housing in mind.

“It may be that as a city, we don’t mind if our South End becomes something like Bayside up in Northport,” she said. “Maybe we are OK with part of our community becoming strictly for the tourist season. But it’s a conversation we need to have.

“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. We’re not alone here. Every city across America that is a place that people want to come visit is grappling with the same thing.”

Councilor Amelia Majgik, whose apartment complex has a STR that brings a constant turn-around of people, cars, and items, agreed with the cap idea as a way to ‘press pause.’

Councilor Adam Ackor stated opposition because of the “lack of equity in regards to Bed and Breakfasts and apartment buildings.’

“I don’t agree that neighborhoods are hollowed out,” he said. “Many of the buildings I work on are owned by folks who are seasonal, and they chose not to rent their houses. And so those houses sit dormant from, basically September to June. Some houses are unoccupied because some people have left them. They haven’t been able to afford them, and they’ve walked away.

“I’m much more in favor of free enterprise, but I do think that some equity must be built into the system so that people are treated fairly with regards to inspections, requirements, those types of things.”

The conversation regarding a cap on short-term rentals will continue at the Monday, Feb. 12 council meeting.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com