Petitioners seek repeal of short-term rental ordinance

The ordinance, which established a mandatory rental registry requiring all renters to provide information for data collection and public safety purposes along with other fire safety regulations, was passed after months of public hearings and input in late February, shortly before March Town Meeting Day.

The regulation is scheduled to go into effect in May 2025.

The opposition coalition, which launched an effort to push the selectboard to reject the ordinance during the final public hearings, has said the town should instead pursue voluntary data collection on short-term rentals and not a mandatory registry.

The short-term rental ordinance passed by a 3-2 vote.

Nearly as soon as the ordinance passed, the coalition sought to get it repealed, with representatives from prominent property management companies and real estate agencies setting up a table outside of Stowe High School on Town Meeting Day to collect petition signatures.

“It didn’t require much effort to collect the over 300 hundred signatures of the Stowe voters who joined me in the effort to rescind this ordinance,” Percy said in her statement. “I suspect that had there been a truly organized effort and a public education campaign to inform other voters about the truth behind the ordinance and its underlying intent, that 1,000 signatures could have been gathered.”

Once the signatures on the petition are verified, the selectboard will be required to set a date for a special town meeting where Stowe residents will decide by popular vote whether to affirm or rescind the ordinance.

At Stowe’s recent town meeting, an article passed requiring that all budgetary decisions in the town be decided by ballot vote, or Australian vote, instead of at an in-person meeting.

A similar item that would have changed all public questions to ballot voting failed, ensuring that the special meeting triggered by this petition will be held in-person.

In her statement, Percy reiterated many of the criticisms that the rental coalition accused the selectboard of in public hearings leading up to the ordinance’s approval, claiming that the selectboard was being insensitive to those who rely on short-term rentals to afford rising property taxes and that it failed to listen to the opposition’s concerns about the process of drafting the ordinance.

Percy said that the primary goal of the ordinance was “the destruction of our specific right to short term rent our property that has long been codified in our zoning regulations,” a claim that the ordinance violates property owners’ rights that has been also voiced by dissenting selectboard members Billy Adams and Paco Aumand, now chair and vice chair of the board, respectively.

Percy also alluded to the rental coalition’s fear that the ordinance leaves the door open to future restrictions on short-term rentals in Stowe and that the town could be subjected to lawsuits because of the ordinance.

A newly formed selectboard features newcomer Ethan Carlson, who succeeded ordinance proponent Lisa Hagerty in a decisive town meeting day vote, and who has said he favors tweaking the ordinance instead of repealing it outright.

Ordinance proponents Jo Sabel Courtney and Nick Donza remain on the board.

In her statement, Percy reiterated that the rental coalition supports much of what the ordinance requires but opposes it as a mandatory requirement, pushing back on claims from proponents that she and the rental coalition represent “coordinated special interests,” and promised to overturn the ordinance by popular vote.

“We will combat the false information that has been disseminated and we will overwhelmingly rescind it,” Percy said. “We will then go back to the drawing board, and we will do it right, with the data and tools required to effectively educate Stowe residents, and provide a framework for responsible STR ownership and operation.”