What might have been a pro forma procedural maneuver turned into a ringing endorsement when the Gardiner Planning Board, at its February 23 meeting, voted unanimously to send a letter to the Town Board expressing explicit support for the draft Short-Term Rental Law currently under consideration.
The Planning Board was one of several “interested agencies” to whom the Town Board had referred the proposed language amending the zoning code to legalize and regulate short-term rentals. “The Town Board has held over the public hearing because the code requires that the Planning Board weigh in,” town attorney Dave Brennan explained. “They can’t close it.”
Rather than opting simply to acknowledge that they had read the new law and had no objections, or that they supported the concept of short-term rental regulation in principle, several members of the Planning Board immediately urged that a letter be drafted affirmatively endorsing the new code language as proposed. “There’s value in us taking a position as a Planning Board,” argued Marc Moran. “We should be less vague in our opinions,” board chair Paul Colucci agreed.
The current draft of the proposed Short-Term Rental Law can be viewed at www.townofgardiner.org/short-term-rental-law. The public hearing was scheduled to continue at the March 2 Town Board meeting.
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