Key Takeaways

  • Brewster finalized a $300 annual short-term rental registration fee after three public hearings
  • The fee funds two new town positions and a host compliance vendor for about 1,300 listings
  • The select board votes on final approval Aug. 31, with startup funding due at a Nov. 16 town meeting

Brewster, Massachusetts will charge short-term rental owners $300 a year to register and inspect their properties, a fee set after town officials pegged the local listing count at roughly 1,300. The Cape Cod town, tucked along Cape Cod Bay near other Cape towns wrestling with short-term rental oversight, finalized its regulations after three public hearings this year.

Town Planner Jon Idman told the select board Monday that the rules have been years in the making. “There’s been a lot of discussion leading up to the regulations,” Idman said, according to the Cape Cod Chronicle. “The task force produced a report. A short-term rental bylaw for registration and inspection was approved at town meeting and by the Attorney General.”

Registration requirements take effect in January, with certificates valid through the end of the calendar year and renewable ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline.

Owners with unresolved building, sanitary, zoning or fire code violations, or unpaid taxes, will be denied renewal, and units set aside for affordable housing cannot be converted into short-term rentals.

The fee also funds two new full-time town positions, a permitting clerk and a building inspector, plus a host compliance vendor the town plans to hire using registration revenue. Idman said existing staff will handle inspections on an interim basis before the building department takes over permanently, a staffing model similar to what other municipalities have adopted while building out new permit systems.

Beyond registration, the regulations cover parking, occupancy limits, advertising, trash collection, sanitation, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and three years of required record keeping, along with collection of the local room occupancy tax.

Idman said the rules were kept deliberately simple. “We tried to keep the regulations as basic as possible and we reviewed regulations from other towns,” he said.

Board vote and funding still pending

The select board is scheduled to vote on final approval of the regulations at its next meeting on Aug. 31. Startup costs for the program still need funding approval at a fall special town meeting, tentatively set for Nov. 16, with officials weighing a 5 p.m. start time pending coordination with the school department.

Related: Cape Cod town pauses short-term rental survey after error, plans relaunch

Enforcement mirrors approaches taken elsewhere in New England, including other regional efforts to tighten oversight of short-term rental construction and operation.

Town Manager Peter Lombardi said the fee is designed to be self-sustaining after the initial rollout. “We’ll need funding for startup expenses,” Lombardi said. “Thereafter fees will cover the cost of the program.”

The select board’s Aug. 31 vote will determine whether the $300 fee and January start date become final, with town meeting funding still to follow in November.

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