The following is the full article from The Falmouth Enterprise published on Friday, 4/10/26), pages 1 & 13, entitled, “Short-Term Rental Bylaw to Take Effect January 1”.
Town Meeting voters this week approved a new short-term rental bylaw aimed at improving oversight of vacation rental properties and protecting residential neighborhoods. The goal of the bylaw is to allow the town to better regulate and track the number of short-term rentals operating while helping prevent large companies from purchasing multiple homes for use as vacation rentals.
The bylaw allows individuals to hold up to three short-term rental licenses and permits LLCs and trusts to own rental properties only if individuals are named as the owners rather than corporate or investment entities.
Efforts to develop the bylaw had been underway since 2023. A working group formed that year produced the initial draft. However, that proposal was postponed indefinitely at the November 2024 Town Meeting. The Select Board appointed the Short-Term Rental Advisory Committee in 2025, represented by the Police Department, Planning Board, Select Board, Affordable Housing Committee, a real estate professional and a member of the Community Preservation Committee.
Enforcement of the bylaw will be shared among several town departments and boards. The bylaw will take effect on January 1, 2027.
In the months leading up to Town Meeting, there was disagreement about which entity should enforce the bylaw. The proposal assigns enforcement responsibilities to the Board of Health, which raised concerns about the additional workload associated with inspections, complaints and possible license hearings.
Jared “Jed” Goldstone, chairman of the Board of Health and a Precinct 2 Town Meeting member, said the board had discussed the bylaw several times and acknowledged that not all of its provisions fall squarely within traditional public health responsibilities.
“Some elements do fall under the jurisdiction of the Board of Health; many have little to do with public health,” Goldstone said. “However, due to the current administrative structure of the town, the bylaw has been put with the Board of Health as the hearing body, which we accept.”
Goldstone said the health agent had indicated that there would be a significant amount of administrative work during the initial implementation of the bylaw, but that it would be manageable with appropriate support from other town departments. He added that enforcement would involve a “team effort” among the town’s inspection services and administrative staff. The board, he said, will monitor how the bylaw affects the health division’s workload and could return to Town Meeting with amendments if necessary.
Speaking in his role as a Town Meeting member, Goldstone proposed an amendment to the bylaw’s occupancy limit to allow two times the number of bedrooms plus two additional occupants, noting that the state sanitary code allows for denser occupancy limits than what the proposed bylaw allowed. The amendment was approved.
The cost of implementing the bylaw will determine the licensing fees required of rental operators. To ensure compliance, operators will be required to register their properties with the state and the town will work with a third-party vendor capable of identifying short-term rental listings online and cross-referencing them with the town’s registry.
The bylaws also state that violations will be met by noncriminal disposition and/or civil penalty.
Town Counsel Maura E. O’Keefe clarified that noncriminal disposition, a $300 fine for every day a violation occurs, would be instances where some part of the bylaw is violated, like overcrowding, parking violations and noise violations. Civil penalty, punishable through no more than a $5,000 fine for each day, is a violation of state law that allows the town to regulate operators.
With the adoption of the new bylaw, Town Meeting also approved Article 18 without discussion, amending an existing rental bylaw to reflect the policies and provisions of the newly adopted short-term rental regulations.