KENNEBUNKPORT – Selectmen took the mid-range when setting short-term rental fee licensing when they met Sept. 23, voting unanimously that the annual license fee would be $325 for a rental that had up to three bedrooms, and $575 for a rental with four or more bedrooms. The other fees suggested were $250 and $500 or $500 and $700.
Short-term rentals are for 30 days or less.
“Given we don’t know how many licenses we’ll write, (these fees) should guarantee we bring in enough income to cover the expense the town will have,” without dipping into taxpayer funds, said selectman Ed Hutchins. “Next year we’ll know the number. I believe this is fair and gives us the income so the program pays for itself. I don’t envision it will make the town money, but I don’t want it to cost the town either.”
Voters approved a new short-term rental ordinance 627-565 in June. The first licenses will be issued for the 2022 calendar year. Applicants must be able to show they rented the property for at least 14 days in 2019, 2020 or 2021. Licenses expire annually and are not transferrable, with some exceptions, including spouse, children and grandchildren of a current owner, a trust for the benefit of the current owner or for estate planning purposes. Properties are to be inspected every five years.
Some who attended the online selectmen’s meeting had questions. One short-term rental owner said the town had not first done its research to determine how many short-term rentals exist in town.
“No data exists,” said Hutchins. “We went through this extensively last winter when we discussed this ordinance. There’s no place to go to find all these numbers.”
Another speaker said she felt the regulation was “being shoved quickly through the system before all the information is in front of you.”
Board chair Sheila Matthews-Bull said short-term rentals have an impact on the town, on its educational system, and on its neighborhoods.
“We’re seeing more and more rentals. We felt and feel we have an obligation to the town to come up with some sort of a solution,” Matthews- Bull said. She said if it turns out the town has overcharged short-term rental property owners for 2022, the fee could be less the following year.
“We’ve spent many nights, weeks and months on this, we brought it to the voters and they voted on it and it is our time to go ahead and implement and we are going to do it,” said selectman Allen Daggett. “I don’t know how many people who don’t have some sort of a license. We need to know how many short-term rentals there are in this town and we need to watch over them to make sure everything is good.”
Later in the session, Town Planning Director Werner Gilliam said listing agencies, like Airbnb or Vrbo, can show general numbers but they tend to fluctuate. And he said he know there are properties that are managed locally, and are not listed on the sites he mentioned. He said he expected somewhere in the 300s “for sure.”
Town Manager Laurie Smith, in a memo to selectmen, said that combined costs of software licensing fees, which varies depending on the number of licenses issued; technology, and staff time for the licensing system is estimated at between $104,000 and $184,000 annually.
The town had hoped the online portal for licensing for the 2022 calendar year would be available in October, but Gilliam said he was informed by the company designing the system that it would be November before it is available.
In response to questions, Smith said people can rent the last two weeks of the the year and still meet the criteria for a 2022 license.
People who have septic systems must submit the design with the application and so could gather that information now, said Gilliam, along with other documents, to be ready to make their application when the portal opens.
The board voted that that those who have rented at least 14 days in 2019, 2020 or 2021 may apply for a 2022 license but that the town will not issue new licenses for that year and will begin issuing 2023 licenses in the fall of 2022.
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