A Calamar Lane property owner has proposed a seven-unit motel on property that once had affordable rentals for locals until a 2018 fire destroyed a home and several other buildings.
An earlier iteration of the proposal had included primarily single-family housing and the change led Woodstock Planning Board Chair Peter Cross to question if it needs to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals to apply for a Special Use Permit. He sought clarity in the difference between a motel and short-term rental.
“What’s the difference between a short-term rental and a motel? Because if nobody knows that, I’m going to have to say we send this to the ZBA,” Cross said at the August 4 Planning Board meeting. “We’re out of short-term rentals. There’s no more short-term rentals allowed.”
A town law puts a cap on the number of short-term rentals allowed, but hotels and motels are classified differently and are not subject to a cap.
“I would say there is a difference. It is a business. It is really similar to a number of businesses that make Woodstock what it is, which is a very famous small town as we all know… Woodstock Way, Woodstock Inn, Morning Glory, Herwood Inn, Twin Gables. These are businesses,” said architect Brad Will, who represents owner Michael Arnstein. “I have spoken with the building inspector and we did review whether he thought any referral to the ZBA was necessary and he didn’t feel it was.”
Cross pointed out that those businesses were grandfathered in. “Your points are well-taken but those businesses that you mentioned were all existing before the law came in for short-term rentals. Then we made a law for short-term rentals and everybody had a chance to apply for that. The time has run out and there’s no more applications,” Cross replied.
“Before the eruption of Airbnb and other things like that, there were very few places where people took a room or used part of the house that they weren’t using during rest of the year. It wasn’t the same situation,” Planning Board member Judith Kerman said in an attempt to clarify the difference. “Motels and hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, it seems to me are still in a category which is not the same as what we are now calling short-term rentals, even though our law kind of muddies up a little bit.”
Engineer Barry Medenbach, who worked on the project with Will, said short-term rentals are more of an accessory use as opposed to the primary use. “In the code, a motel is permitted with a special use permit. So it’s basically up to the board to either issue or not issue a special use permit,” Cross said. “The problem is, there were five full-time living units on that property before it burned down. And so of course, everybody would like to have full time rental housing available…It’s certainly up to the applicant to apply for whatever they would like, but I’m sure the neighborhood would prefer it being long-term rentals.”
Kerman said she is not in favor.
“I think it makes a major change in the neighborhood. It also raises a question about our agreement to the bridges over the stream.”
The applicant first came to the Planning Board for a permit to build a foot bridge across the Tannery Brook. It was then that Will had shown simple drawings of what else was being planned for the property.
“If somebody is renting the property as a long-term tenant, and it’s four or five units, the amount of use they are going to make of the Comeau walking across that bridge is fairly limited. If it becomes a hotel, I could easily imagine that every person who rents a space is going to go hiking in the Comeau,” Kerman said. “And that will be a much more heavy use of the Comeau property, as well as a lot more disruption for the neighborhood…more cars, more parking needed. I’m not in favor of this change. I feel like the camel got its nose under the tent here.”
Planning Board member Brian Normoyle felt the same way.
“I just I’m so tired of being presented one thing and then having a change. And this is the oldest trick in the book. The Planning Board is not a rubber stamp for whatever people want to do. This in a personal opinion, but I’m tired of it,” he said.
Planning Bord co-chair Stuart Lipkind said he wants to wait until the public hearing before he forms an opinion. “I think it’s premature to reach a conclusion on that…until we’ve heard from the neighbors,” he said.