Mayor, city manager seek short-term rental bill changes

By Thomas P. Caldwell

CONCORD — Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer and City Manager Scott Myers brought the concerns of the City Council to Concord on January 25 during a hearing on Senate Bill 49, pertaining to short-term rentals.

The previous night, City Council had expressed opposition to the bill as drafted, saying that it would remove any barriers to the rental of residential property, whether appropriate or not.

Laconia has put in place an ordinance to address complaints about illegal parking, noise, and other offenses by those who rent properties in residential areas. The city also was worried about the number of people purchasing housing stock with the sole aim of renting it out on a short-term basis, creating a shortage of housing for those who want to live in Laconia full-time.

Laconia’s ordinance sets a limit on the number of people who can rent a home, based on square footage; it requires that cars must be contained in driveways and not spill out onto the street; and the city has the right to inspect the building to make sure it follows proper life-safety guidelines in terms of fire and carbon monoxide detectors and methods of egress.

The legislative bill, sponsored by Sen. Harold French (R-Franklin), only contains a provision for obtaining the name and contact information for the property owner in case of any legal proceeding, but allows short-term rentals anywhere in cities, towns, and unincorporated places.

After Hosmer and Myers returned from Concord on Tuesday, the city manager reported that French, at the beginning of the hearing, had introduced an amendment to his bill to incorporate some of the concerns he had heard from others. The amendment would allow communities to adopt ordinances to allow an inspection of the premises to ensure it meets minimum housing standards.

Myers said he and Hosmer were the first to testify, and they outlined the points in Laconia’s ordinance that have proven to be well-accepted by all parties.

“I let them know very clearly that our ordinance has been on the books for two years now, and we have not had any court activity related to it,” Myers said, “and we have close to 200 properties that are on our registry now. And the fact that we’re not hearing pushback from either residents or from short-term rental operators says that maybe we’ve struck a balance that seems to be common-sense and working.”

Myers also spoke about the exception Laconia provides for owner-occupied homes.

“We can’t legislate every situation that comes up, but we’ve tried to look at the big picture and provide some flexibility in there,” Myers said.

He and Hosmer offered support to legislators if they wanted to establish a working group or committee to develop a workable law.

“So we have a little bit of optimism that at least they’re listening to some of the concerns and maybe not making it as black and white as the original,” Myers said.

He noted that there was an overflow crowd attending the hearing and said he and Hosmer left after they testified to make room for others to speak, so he was not able to say how the rest of the testimony went on Tuesday.

“If you can’t get in the room and hear, you’re really at a disadvantage, because you’re not hearing any of the prior testimony, so you don’t know what’s already been said,” Myers noted about the crowd waiting in the hall.

“So we did our part and we left, but there were a couple of good questions from the senators, and I think there were some people — and obviously Sen. French — who saw the need to amend it even right out of the gate,” Myers said.

“And if we don’t feel we’re in a good place once the Senate acts on it … we can certainly go to the House and see if we can try to fine-tune it a little bit more,” he concluded.