OLD ORCHARD BEACH — It was a packed house at Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, with people sitting on the floor and overflowing into the hallway.

The big attraction at the meeting was a public hearing on a proposed moratorium for short-term rentals.

Earlier this year, the town council approved an official definition in the town ordinance for short-term rentals - rental units offered for less than 30 days that are not in a hotel, bed and breakfast, overnight cabin lodging facility or campground. Short-term rentals can be a whole house, an apartment or condominium unit, or an individual room or part of a house.

With some town officials concerned that there aren’t applicable rules to govern short term rentals, a moratorium on issuing new licenses on short-term rentals has been proposed to give the town time to create new regulations. The proposed moratorium would not impact the re-issuing of existing rental licenses.

The moratorium, if enacted, would be applicable in the following zones: R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, R-5, rural district and planned mixed use development district. For more information on these areas, go to the town’s zoning districts and map page. 

The Town Council will vote at its Oct. 3 meeting whether to enact the moratorium. If the moratorium is approved, it will go into effect immediately and expire after 180 days, according to the proposed document.

“I do not support this moratorium, and I want to make that perfectly clear,” said Town Council Chairman Shawn O’Neill at Tuesday night's meeting.

He said while there were some valid concerns, he thought the process was done in haste. He said while he thought the moratorium was not necessary, he did think there should be workshops to discuss short-term rentals.

“These workshops should have taken place before all this uproar and upheaval happened,” he said.

O’Neill garnered much applause when he told the crowd, “Old Orchard Beach is a tourist town, and while I’m sitting in this chair, I’m going to do my damnedest to keep it a tourist town.”

Town Councilor Larry Mead, who was in favor of the moratorium, said the increase of short-term rentals was making it more difficult for people to find affordable year-round housing. He said it was also changing neighborhoods as homes that were traditionally lived in by families who resided in town were being purchased to rent out to vacationers.

“I’m not against short-term rentals. Let me clear about that,” said Mead. “I believe fully, it’s essential for us, as a resort community, to continue to have available vacation rentals – short-term rentals.”

He said while Old Orchard Beach needed to stay competitive with other resort communities, it needed to protect itself against unintended negative effects like losing its year-round community.

He said he would like the Council to discuss possible short-term rental regulations over a series of workshops where community members could share their opinions. Mead said the town needed to “put some breaks on things” as new regulations would take time to develop, and he didn’t want the town to continue to slip. There needed to be a balance to allow short-term rentals with proper controls and limits while ensuring the integrity of long-standing neighborhoods, he said.

“So that if I buy a house on a particular street, I don’t have to worry that five years from now, I’m going to see three or four of the houses turn into short-term rentals,” he said.

More than 30 people spoke at the public hearing, including community members, out-of-state property owners, and realtors. While a couple of commentors were in favor of the moratorium, the vast majority were against it.

Kathleen O’Donnell and her sister own a home at West Tioga Avenue that has been in their family for 67 years. O’Donnell said the family was able to afford to keep the cottage by renting it out for part of the summer. She said her family paid property taxes, rental license fees, and state occupancy tax. She said they did not require any town services for 7 months and did not have anyone in school system, and were thus subsidizing the year-round residents of Old Orchard Beach.

“Short-term rentals support Old Orchard Beach, and Old Orchard Beach tourism. By restricting short-term rentals, you are biting the hand that feeds you,” she said.

Roger Nielsen of New Salt Road said he was opposed to the moratorium, and “the shut shutdown, or let it run wild,” approach. He said rather than “shut everything off,” the town put together a task force of experts from members of the community to review short-term rentals regulations.

Holly Korda said she supported the moratorium. She said she lived on Birch Lane, which she described as a quiet, friendly, residential neighborhood. Korda said over the past few years, several homes in her neighborhood had been sold, and there had been an increase of short-term rentals.

She said while many short-term renters presented few problems, others posed concerns. She said there have been cases of loud parties, trash being disposed of improperly leading to seagull and wildlife scattering garbage in the street, and parking issues. Korda said there were many less problems with short-term rentals where owners were nearby, and issues could be addressed to homeowners.

She said she’d like the town to explore ways short-term rentals could be effectively managed so as their numbers increased everyone in Old Orchard Beach could co-exist.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.