UPDATE In talking with Rockport citizen Doug Cole this morning, Feb. 22. he said it wasn’t a secret that he is one of the original creators of a petition to get the short-term rental ordinance on Rockport’s June Town Meeting ballot.
“I had the energy to get it started,” he said. “I have very strong feeling that town voters get an opportunity to vote this up or down, and to keep it off the ballot is a voter-supression type of thing,” he said. “I don’t have a strong feeling either way about the ordinance itself, but want it to go before the voters. It just seems to be the right thing to do.”
UPDATE In talking with Rockport citizen Doug Cole this morning, Feb. 22. he said it wasn’t a secret that he is one of the original creators of a petition to get the short-term rental ordinance on Rockport’s June Town Meeting ballot.
“I had the energy to get it started,” he said. “I have very strong feeling that town voters get an opportunity to vote this up or down, and to keep it off the ballot is a voter-supression type of thing,” he said. “I don’t have a strong feeling either way about the ordinance itself, but want it to go before the voters. It just seems to be the right thing to do.”
In a Feb. 8 vote, members of the Rockport Select Board decided that a proposed ordinance that would regulate short term rentals in the municipality will not not appear on the June Town Meeting ballot as originally intended.
Select Board Chair Debra Hall, who worked to draft the proposed ordinance with Vice Chair Denise Kennedy-Munger, said that although she felt that the voices of the community could be best represented if the ordinance were put to a public vote, she felt that it best that the board table the ordinance for the time being.
“We have gotten to a point where the rhetoric and the temperature on this issue is so hot that I think it’s in the best interest of the town to cool the temperature down, so I support tabling [the ordinance]” said Hall at the meeting.
Rockport Select Board divided over timeline, need for short-term rental ordinance
Louis Bettcher Mon, 01/25/2021 - 11:00pm
Rockport Select Board member Denise Kennedy-Munger (inset) presents portions of a recent short-term rental ordinance draft on Jan. 25.
ROCKPORT – After hearing a presentation Jan. 25 on a third draft of a proposed short-term rental ordinance, some members of the Rockport Select Board expressed concerns over the proposed deadline of a public vote in June on the ordinance, as well as the very need for such regulations in the municipality.
Select Board Chair Debra Hall and board member Denise Kennedy-Munger presented to remaining board members, Mark Kelley, Michelle Hannan and Jeff Hamilton the third and most recent draft of an ordinance which would regulate short-term rentals in Rockport; the document differentiates between rental properties which are owner-occupied and those which are not.