[0:00] We're from a couple city council meetings we had back in the late winter early spring, where there were some lingering questions and information that needed to make sure whatever decision that city council makes in the end is the best that we have for the city.

[0:16] So tonight, how we're going to work this is we're going to have a little presentation from

[0:20] Nick Armour of the Zoning Officer to Essebrook, who's our short-term rental supervisor.

[0:26] We do have, but we have Patricia Reynolds from Planning to the Screen Resiliency and Sustainability

[0:33] in our Deputy City Manager, Mike Carillo, our available for questions.

[0:38] As we go through these sections, the City Council here will answer or ask some questions as

[0:44] And at the end of the presentation,

[0:46] then we'll open up for public comment and questions.

[0:51] So we'll start off.

[0:52] Mr. Armor.

[0:53] I want to start off, please.

[0:54] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[0:56] So just to recap, we,

[0:58] we had a resolution that was passed.

[1:00] It was resolution 45 to 88.

[1:04] So near the last year that requested staff brings some

[1:08] ordinance changes around short torrentled in the city.

[1:11] We had a first read of some suggested ordinances at the March 4th Council meeting and then at the subsequent meeting on March 11th, there was a motion to continue and to request a workshop. So that's why we are here tonight.

[1:30] So I first you know we're looking at this kind of as a educational opportunity here for everyone involved that we have a lot of different types of rentals in the city of Newport.

[1:41] So just going through those, we have long-term rentals that are rentals of more than nine months are considered long-term.

[1:49] These property owners are not required to register with a city and must comply with the minimum housing standards.

[1:55] And these make up approximately 41% of our resident housing stock in the city.

[2:00] The next kind of tier is what we refer to often times as seasonal rentals.

[2:04] these are one to nine month rentals.

[2:06] So anything greater than 30 days, but not

[2:10] greater than nine months, they have to file what's called

[2:12] a rental welding application.

[2:16] And again, these were, are often hundreds of

[2:18] her to a seasonal rentals and we're put in place

[2:21] many years back primarily around the kind of

[2:24] party houses that we have in the city.

[2:27] Those are required to register with the city,

[2:29] and we have approximately 257 of those registered.

[2:32] Then we get into the short term categories, so under our zoning code, under the definitions,

[2:39] these are called guest facilities, and they're broken up into four different categories.

[2:44] So we have transient guest facilities, which are commonly referred to as hotels or

[2:49] bed and breakfast or ends, then we have vacation guest facilities that oftentimes used interchangeably

[2:55] with time share properties that has to be a property with hand or more units that can be rented

[3:01] on a short-term basis, they can include kitchens in them, which is different than in hotel rooms

[3:06] and not a lot to have individual kitchens.

[3:09] We have five properties that are technically called vacation guest facilities within the

[3:15] city.

[3:16] Then we have historic guest houses.

[3:17] These are primarily bed and breakfasts and ends, but they have to be in a nationally registered

[3:22] historic property, but they can contain up to 18 units within them.

[3:27] And then the last category is called guest houses.

[3:30] So, these are oftentimes interchangeably used with the term Airbnb or short-term rentals as many people think of them.

[3:39] The very last category we have is a home occupation for guest renting up to two bedrooms on a short-term basis,

[3:46] but it must be within an owner occupied dwelling as the primary dwelling and while the owner is actually present on the property,

[3:54] they can't just leave for the weekend and rent their house. It has to be well there.

[3:57] Are there any questions on?

[4:00] Do you want to just touch on the, with a home occupation,

[4:04] for instance, that could be any, any occupied home in the city?

[4:08] So again, it has to be a owner occupied primary residence.

[4:11] Only one of those types of uses can occur on a property.

[4:15] So if you have a three unit building, only one of the owners

[4:19] within that could do a home occupation to rent up to two bedrooms,

[4:23] this was put in place to help people offset their mortgage

[4:26] on their house and be able to, you know, rent a couple of bedrooms while they're not using them with them.

[4:36] Correct.

[4:39] And then the guest house, we're talking about as a full unit of house, short-term rental.

[4:44] Yes.

[4:44] And not be in a residential zone.

[4:46] Correct.

[4:47] Well, we'll go into that.

[4:47] Okay.

[4:48] I just want to make sure that we're, does that clarity?

[4:55] All right.

[4:55] So I just wanted to briefly touch on state regulations around short rentals.

[4:59] the state of Rhode Island.

[5:00] Now, it requires an annual registration for short torrentals, Airbnb, requires that all the state registration numbers are posted on their advertisements.

[5:10] And that state registration numbers actually allowed us to track down some short torrental operators with a new port that were not registered with the city.

[5:16] I think there was just confusion with some of those people that they didn't realize they needed to register both the state and with the city.

[5:23] The state, unfortunately, does not regulate much beyond someone just registering an applying

[5:29] for a short-term rental.

[5:30] They don't look at the number of bedrooms, the number of guests in a bedroom zoning district

[5:35] that they occur in parking requirements.

[5:37] They don't do any property inspections or anything like that.

[5:39] So that's why we take on the effort of having people register here and doing those inspections

[5:45] and checks for zoning district clients, parking requirements, manager requirements, things

[5:50] like that.

[5:53] sorry, this slide's a little compact here. So our current ordinance is for guest houses,

[6:00] I just want to go through where you're allowed.

[6:04] So Mayor Holder referenced that they are not allowed

[6:07] in residential zones. So there's no non-owner occupied short-term rentals within residential

[6:14] districts except for ones that existed and were approved prior to the zoning change that occurred in

[6:21] 2022 when this prohibition went into place.

[6:24] So those are referred to as a grandfathered property

[6:27] as long as they maintain their active registration

[6:29] with the city and have not abandoned that use.

[6:33] In the general business and waterfront business zones,

[6:36] guesthouses are allowed by right,

[6:37] but must meet the parking standards of the district.

[6:41] And in the limited business,

[6:43] guesthouses are permitted through a special use permit

[6:45] process, which is approved through the zoning board.

[6:49] That also has provide parking and requires an on-site manager, so someone that actually lives on the property to manage the other unit that is unit or units that's being used for short-term rental.

[7:01] And then again, home occupations are renting up to two bedrooms and an owner occupied dwelling.

[7:05] That's permitted in any district that allows residential services.

[7:08] So as long as it's an owner occupied dwelling, that can have up to two bedrooms for home occupations.

[7:12] And it has to be the principal residents.

[7:15] It must provide the parking for those additional bedrooms for the guest use.

[7:20] And then you have to register the same registration process for a full guest house use.

[7:26] Just wanted to briefly touch on the previously proposed changes.

[7:30] So in 2024, the Council had passed a resolution to ban short rentals entirely to switch

[7:37] them to not permitted to use this section from the LB waterfront business and general business

[7:43] zone.

[7:44] There was some pushback at that time and some threats of legal action and Councillor Combs

[7:47] of Warbonne had requested.

[7:49] Solicitor input and that effectively died.

[7:52] May 2025 we had this new resolution and in 2016 we had the ordinances that were put forward

[8:00] that had first passage and then at the second read there was a request for a workshop.

[8:09] So, for the process of applying for short-term rental, all guest house applications are submitted digitally through the GavoS system, which was a system that was approved by the City Council, which allows us to, you online registration, it allows us to track all short-term rentals, GavoS also provides an enforcement assistance by scanning all of the short-term rental websites, the common ones at least, and checks advertisements, cross-references them with the

[8:39] approve addresses and allows us to kind of identify any properties that are not in compliance

[8:44] right now. Then short-term rentals are reviewed by zoning for clients with the zoning district

[8:49] that they're in, the parking requirements, managers, requirements, and then they are looked at

[8:56] by the building and fire departments for certain health and safety requirements there.

[9:03] Again, that starts with zoning because if it's not going to not zoning,

[9:09] For properties that can't meet one of the zoning requirements, a variance can be submitted through the zoning border.

[9:14] We'll give a little bit of the data on that one.

[9:22] So for some basic numbers on short-term rentals, transient guest facilities and historic guest houses.

[9:28] So again, these are like hotels, bed and breakfast and ends.

[9:31] We have 62 registered hotels in bed and breakfast, and that comes with a $1,000 yearly registration fee.

[9:39] And, you know, this encompasses everyone from a six-bedroom transient guest facility or

[9:46] historic guest house all the way up to the Marriott that has over 300 units.

[9:51] Then again, we, on the Haitian guest facilities, are time-chairs.

[9:55] We have, technically, five properties encompassing each registered type.

[10:00] Time share properties that have 342 units.

[10:06] Those also come with just $1,000 yearly registration for property that's operating.

[10:11] Guest houses we have currently 240 registered guest houses in the ones that are the full house that's being used up to five bedrooms of that property.

[10:21] They have $1,000 registration fee per units, and for home occupations, we currently have

[10:27] 94 registered home occupations, those have a $500 yearly registration fee.

[10:33] And again, we check that they are not registering more than two bedrooms, that they actually

[10:37] have two bedrooms to register, that they have the primary resident that lives there here around

[10:45] So in total for 2026, we've had 444 registered guest houses, fancy guest facilities, vacation

[10:52] facilities, all those combined 400 and four total products, and fees are that are collected

[10:58] to go directly to the, you know, how much the fees are that we've collected.

[11:02] I see.

[11:02] I guess I think it's going to be on the very last day.

[11:06] Right.

[11:06] I'm going to pass it up to Drew to kind of go through some of the actual number of the short

[11:10] registration.

[11:12] Nick?

[11:13] The next slide, we just wanted to give a brief overview for the past four cycles of the registration and the fees that have been collected.

[11:23] So, in a quick review, the number of applications really has not increased by that much.

[11:29] It's kind of level.

[11:31] The number of the certificates that were actually issued has increased for a couple of different reasons.

[11:38] with the automated system, and then we changed the registration

[11:43] process to you pay for your $1,000 here, $500 upon Google's.

[11:50] So, the owners were wanting their certificates by June 1st,

[11:55] so we were able to process them a little quick and work quickly.

[11:59] The fees collected, I don't know what it's down on the bottom.

[12:03] So, we started when the fees were increased in 2022.

[12:07] started in 269,000, following year went to 359,500, and then this year to date 306,500,500 to date.

[12:23] Next slide is the state registration analysis.

[12:27] There's been questions asked in the past why the state registration might have,

[12:32] well, in this case, 626 people registered for short from rental versus the approximately 400

[12:38] that we have registered with us in the city.

[12:40] So I didn't analysis, compared everything on down, and the different columns highlighted in blue are the ones that are registering with us to city that hotel time share properties, the home occupation, and the note and non-home occupation.

[12:57] So when you add all those up, it comes to 397 that are registered with state.

[13:02] The balance of those is Nick mentioned before, Airbnb requires a state registration number on any new advertisement.

[13:09] So people who are renting an individual time share week add to register with the state to get the number so they can advertise

[13:16] Same with long-term or rental dwelling administrations

[13:19] So those numbers are in there, but they skew the overall number of how many people are registered for short term compared to how many are

[13:27] Physically short term

[13:32] Thank you

[13:33] The next page does a very similar comparison

[13:37] where people say we have almost 1,000 advertisements out in Airbnb versus the roughly 400 that we have registered with the city.

[13:47] This runs along the same lines where the time shares individual time share owners,

[13:51] have to put their weeks up for rent through Craigslist, Airbnb,

[13:56] so they have to register with the state as well.

[13:59] If they do not register with us, time share properties themselves register with us,

[14:04] but not the individual owners in it.

[14:08] Going down the list again for the Airbnb advertisements,

[14:13] the long-term rentals, there was 129 of those,

[14:16] because they're advertising on the Airbnb,

[14:17] they needed to stay right to string.

[14:19] So the numbers are very skewed by time shares,

[14:24] long-term rentals, and then the calendar block,

[14:27] just that it's an old ad that is out there from years and years

[14:31] ago, but has no availability, but the ad is still there.

[14:34] But I just ask a question.

[14:36] So are we saying that, okay, 47% you're saying compliant?

[14:41] Are the time shares compliant?

[14:44] The time share associations are compliant.

[14:47] Okay.

[14:47] Which are included in that 47%.

[14:50] Oh.

[14:50] But the individual time share owners.

[14:53] They do not need to register with us.

[14:55] They don't need to register.

[14:57] But they're compliant with what it is.

[15:00] That they have to do anyway. And then the long-term rentals, they are compliant as well.

[15:07] They may be, there's going to be long-term or a rental dwelling.

[15:11] Okay. Oh, I think I see what you did. So, the time-share is the long-term rentals.

[15:19] That is equals the 468. Is that what you're saying?

[15:22] The 468 we have on the blue portion of this pie chart, that's compliant as far as properties

[15:29] that we are aware of that have applied and have a certificate to operate within the city.

[15:35] Some of those properties have multiple listings on Airbnb because they might have a couple

[15:39] different units within their property, but they're compliant as far as number of bedrooms and

[15:43] everything like that. So there's 468 total guest house advertisements that only encompass, you know,

[15:51] or 104 properties.

[15:53] I guess what I'm trying to say is that the time

[15:55] shares and the long-term rentals are being compliant.

[15:59] They're just not the properties.

[16:02] They don't have a certificate of transient gas facility.

[16:05] Because they don't need that.

[16:06] Right.

[16:07] OK.

[16:08] So OK.

[16:09] But OK.

[16:10] Thank you.

[16:11] But the other two are not.

[16:14] License review for now.

[16:15] Yeah, they're OK.

[16:16] OK.

[16:16] Thank you.

[16:18] Any other questions on that side?

[16:22] OK.

[16:24] Citations to municipal court over the last four years, just wanted to show the increase from 2023 through 2020 to current date to 2026, and we can distribute this to the use of the governmental software by going out and scraping all the ads, attaching them to owners that are properties that are not registered with us, so then we can go forth and site them and bring them into court.

[16:53] So a big jump in that, and especially with having more focused staff at the city, being able to focus on this more so than in the past.

[17:07] So last year was quite large at 84 citations bringing in close to $70,000.

[17:13] This year we have 41 so far to date.

[17:15] And probably won't be as high, because we were unable to bring a lot of these properties into compliance.

[17:24] Yeah, we actually, these numbers were done last week.

[17:27] We had a few more on Monday that are resolved that have paid the numbers.

[17:32] Yeah, another eight thousand.

[17:34] And

[17:38] then the question comes up also with the new certificates that are issued versus a new property or what was

[17:49] not in compliance before. So, for example, in 2025, we had a total of 44 new applications,

[17:56] not including sale from one owner to another owner that was compliant before this is

[18:00] fresh out of the box. 27 of those in 2025 were people that had been previously cited

[18:07] and were able to bring into compliance. Whether that was going through the zoning border review to

[18:12] get parking or they were able to be certified but just never had in the past.

[18:19] 17 of those for 2025, we're just new property applications, and for 2026

[18:27] Seven more that had been cited. It had been brought into compliance and seven new properties.

[18:34] And there's a few more in the pike this year, maybe ten more applications that are in the pike that have not been approved fully approved.

[18:41] So again, I think just the the efforts with the system and the focus to dedicated staff as a problem.

[18:48] So it's really helped to get the non-compliance into compliant and kind of get a handle on things.

[18:56] Were they cited because they weren't registered or were there other issues that were...

[19:01] This was strictly stopped being registered.

[19:03] Okay, thank you.

[19:09] All right.

[19:10] It's moving away a little bit from the numbers.

[19:13] There have been some questions around parking variances connected to short-term rentals.

[19:17] So, one of the common things we see is that someone either that's been cited to court or just wants to start a new short to rental.

[19:27] They are newly understanding the requirements around zoning and depending on where they live, what their property looks like,

[19:33] and how much space their property has, they may need to bring parking into compliance.

[19:39] And so we have had in recent years, I think that's in the last three years, 18 properties that have requested and obtained parking bearings.

[19:47] There's been a few that have been denied. And that's in order for them to operate their guesthouse or increase their number of bedrooms,

[19:53] because under the zoning code, every bedroom of a guesthouse requires a parking space to be provided.

[20:00] And then there's a space required for the manager.

[20:04] The way that the way that our code works is that if you are changing the use of a property, you have to look at the original use of the property and what the parking requirement was for that use, and then you look at the new use. So in this case, guest house, and you have to look at the difference in the parking requirement.

[20:26] So if a house requires two spaces, and a guest house of four bedrooms requires four spaces,

[20:33] you have to make up the difference of two.

[20:36] So sometimes that's how the parking variance is coming is that it's for an extra couple

[20:40] spaces make up that difference here.

[20:43] So the zoning board has consistently applied the state standards for variances as we're

[20:48] required to do for either approval or denial of variance.

[20:52] And recently in order to kind of offset this lack of parking on a property, some of these have been approved by having an applicant obtain a lease for parking spaces within a half mile of the property.

[21:07] There's nothing in the code that says a half mile is what that number should be, but they felt that that is a reasonable and probably the most extreme distance that someone would park at an offsite location.

[21:20] and walk to their guest house.

[21:23] Again, this is when a property cannot

[21:26] provide the parking on their own property

[21:28] and meets the standards to approve of variance,

[21:32] but in order to offset that impact to that direct neighborhood

[21:35] is instead of having them just try to find parking

[21:38] on the street around the areas to try to find

[21:41] parking spaces at a property off sale.

[21:44] I require the applicant to provide that property to me

[21:48] in advance of the zoning board meeting

[21:49] so that I can do analysis about that property itself and whether for those of these spaces,

[21:55] there are sufficient parking spaces there to provide these extra spaces for this guesthouse.

[22:01] So if someone provides a site within a half mile and I conduct an analysis to say,

[22:08] they don't have an parking to provide extra to you, they have to find another location to try to

[22:13] find those spaces to reach. Mr. Chairman,

[22:19] Nick, we all know that's nonsense, though, right?

[22:22] In other words, when the zoning board approves of said quarter mile, half mile, whatever, they are, whatever their

[22:33] decision might be on that particular request,

[22:38] we as a city do not monitor to ensure that

[22:43] license plates of those staying at a short-term rental are, in fact, parking the evening of their

[22:54] stay or the evenings of their stay, at where they or the owners of the short-term rental told

[23:01] the city they would be staying. Going back to me saying it's nonsense, we all know what these folks

[23:08] do is they take up parking spaces which would otherwise be available to newport residents who

[23:14] do not have driveways. Unless you can tell me that the city somehow has a compliant system

[23:22] in place which guarantees that they are doing exactly as they said they would. Do we have such

[23:28] a compliant system in place? Thank you. What I will say though is for each of these again the

[23:35] only board is applying the state-mandated requirements for a variance. In all of these cases that

[23:41] they have approved these, they have found that these particular cases meet that requirement

[23:46] and those standards for a variance, whether or not they had provided any of these off-site parking

[23:52] spaces for through a lease. So they have been determined that they meet all the standards for hardship

[23:59] for compliance with the neighborhood character and impact to the neighborhood, but they are attempting

[24:06] to offset that impact through having lease parking.

[24:11] We can do away with the lease parking, but it doesn't mean that the variance findings

[24:14] wouldn't still be net.

[24:16] And so that's where the zoning board felt that this was one way to potentially offset this.

[24:21] We have been reviewing the parking leases that we were required to be provided to us on a yearly basis,

[24:29] that these leases are still being provided in order to get their renewal.

[24:33] And we are monitoring their advertisements that they are referencing these places to park as opposed to just finding parking in the neighborhood.

[24:42] But again, if they meet the variance findings to not have the parking on their own property, they meet those variance findings.

[24:48] And so we have felt that this is one way to attempt to offset that.

[24:53] Nick, do we know how many have these parking issues with thumb?

[25:00] Parking that's offsite. Through 18 properties that the zoning board has approved with a lease condition for parking. Only 18 out of how many?

[25:11] We'll add of 240 total guest houses that we have.

[25:15] Thank.

[25:22] I'm not going to bore you with this. This is just the variance findings as required by the state.

[25:26] But essentially, we have to establish that there's a hardship on the property that's unique to that property.

[25:32] most of the time, it's that the property and question is too small and does not have either a large enough driveway or a driveway at all in order to actually provide the extra parking spaces that they need.

[25:44] That hardship can have been a result of any prior action of the applicants that they can't have expanded their home and now say that they don't have parking availability.

[25:54] They have to find that the variants won't alter the general character of the surrounding area.

[25:58] most of the times they have found that because the entire area doesn't have very large lots

[26:05] or parking available on their own property. And the last one is what's referred to as more

[26:11] than a relief sought is minimal to the reasonable enjoyment of that permitted use on the property.

[26:25] So the possible considerations for improvement and if you're included in the ordinance changes

[26:31] that were provided to you back in March. The big one was to change the general business and water

[26:38] front business. Guest houses can do the special use permit category. So that's where we have

[26:43] limited business zone right now is in special use permit. This would require an onsite manager be

[26:49] provided for all new guesthouses. But we do see in a sense that a downside would be that many of

[26:54] these properties couldn't meet the onsite manager because oftentimes they're a single unit on a property.

[27:00] the on-site manager really requires there to be at least two units so that one of them

[27:04] can serve as the on-site manager. One of the other suggested changes was that we do away

[27:11] with the parking credits that we've referred to. So in the definition section and the general

[27:18] provision section we propose that we're normally for a change of use we do this parking credit

[27:24] analysis for guest houses we propose that we would do away with that and they would have to

[27:29] provide all of the parking on the property.

[27:33] Additionally, we put that in the definition section so that, in a sense, they cannot request

[27:40] a variance to that parking requirement given it would be how the uses defined you must have

[27:47] the parking on the property.

[27:48] If you don't meet the use definition, you can't have that in some of the property.

[27:53] And the last one was about prohibiting ground floor commercial conversions.

[27:57] So because we've had these requirements for an on-site manager, we have seen applications that

[28:02] have proposed to take away a ground floor commercial space, turn it into either part of the guest house or the on-site manager dwelling unit effectively doing the way with the ground floor commercial, which we don't think is appropriate for our city.

[28:18] So that was part of our proposal was to, was to prohibit these conversions of ground floor commercial spaces.

[28:29] This next slide, it was just something we were throwing out there as possible.

[28:33] Considerations is to consider scaling these for different short-term rentals.

[28:38] This was just an idea thrown out by staff.

[28:41] We thought that there was some disparity between how much we charge for a individual guest house operator,

[28:48] which is a thousand dollars per unit for five bedrooms, or it's a thousand dollars for registering an entire property of hotels,

[28:56] as an engine-bent breakfast, I think that this would need much further consideration on how we

[29:01] would do something like this input from the solicitors' office, which we did not get prior

[29:05] to going through with this slide deck.

[29:13] And then one of the things I wanted to touch on was just about improving our short-term rental

[29:18] enforcement.

[29:19] So, again, we have highly improved our short-term rental and recent years with using GoVOS.

[29:26] Again, scraping all these different websites, understanding who's operating plants with state rules and our local rules.

[29:33] But we've thought about other things, you know, we have a lot of times that we cite someone in a port,

[29:40] and they just don't show up for months.

[29:43] And effectively, they just have it.

[29:46] They're, they're hearing continued repeatedly until they finally show up and get a judgment of $1,000,

[29:52] which is the maximum judgment that we can grant or that our judge can, but I think there's some frustration in that.

[30:00] And if someone doesn't show up to court, it seems fair that someone should be held in default and

[30:04] at some very judgment, be placed against them. And if the fines aren't paid, then potentially

[30:10] look into putting a lien on their property.

[30:12] Mr. Chairman, Nick, are these no-shows, actual no-shows, or as is acceptable? There are many reasons

[30:26] why a potential or a plate of might not be able to show up are they are they requested by

[30:33] counsel.

[30:33] It's a combination we get some that are requested for actual continuances for various

[30:37] reasons.

[30:38] Sure.

[30:39] Sure.

[30:39] Other people that just don't show up for several rounds and then those scheduling conflicts

[30:43] are perfectly acceptable.

[30:46] It happened to all of us to reschedule even twice rescheduling half a dozen times is a

[30:52] a little bit on the edge, even if requested by Council, but no shows not requested by the client

[30:59] or by the plaintiff, I should say, or by plaintiff's attorney. Why does the judge not

[31:05] simply default them on site? I would probably defer to our city solicitor on that. I don't.

[31:11] Well, he's not the judge. You have any understanding, and I don't mean to put you on the spot.

[31:16] But I have personal contact with the judge about cases of the municipal.

[31:21] Is there any talk?

[31:24] I understand that you can't speak for our municipal court judge or the office.

[31:30] But is there any discussion in zoning planning or within city hall as to why we simply

[31:36] let these no shows go for months without being defaulted?

[31:41] I can comment on that.

[31:43] So in municipal court, typically if there is a, a no show or formally known as a failure to appear, the municipal court judge will issue a benchmark for a failure to appear.

[31:53] The bench warrants in the municipal court are a little bit different than in our state courts.

[31:58] As they, as they do not carry the same, the same sanctions or ground enforcement actions, enforcement actions as the state courts.

[32:08] But typically what will happen is the bench warrant will be issued.

[32:12] The clerk of the municipal court will then notify the defendant of their failure to appear,

[32:17] send them a copy of the bench warrant and inform them that they are required under

[32:22] or the bench warrant will be executed.

[32:24] That's the actual process.

[32:27] I appreciate that explanation.

[32:28] So then what would need to be done by either the council or what is in place for the judge

[32:37] at this point, simply after one no show with no explanation, I was standing in the bench

[32:45] warrant to issue a judgment of the fault and put the property in lean.

[32:54] If I may, some of this is also dependent on the notice that they get when a lot of people

[33:06] summoned into court, they receive a summons in hand.

[33:11] They're served by a constable and so forth.

[33:15] Some of these defendants might have just gotten noticed by mail.

[33:20] So you do have to be a little careful initially when there isn't a, when there's a no show.

[33:26] So after that, I would agree, council of Colin.

[33:30] After that, once we believe, we have to prop a notice to the defendant

[33:35] then we can start doing the default and ask for a default judgment, and by the way, and we can

[33:44] lean these properties with a proper judgment from the court.

[33:49] So.

[33:50] Thank you.

[33:50] I solicit being final follow up question on this subject.

[33:55] Then a little off the subject, but related does our assistant city solicitor request.

[34:03] what you just described on a regular basis, if a no-show, if there is a no-show.

[34:11] If there is a no-show and she is involved in the case at that time initially at a

[34:19] Raymond's and such, she isn't. Those are handled by the Zoning Officer. Once it becomes a

[34:27] trial at that stage, then the solicitor steps in on the prosecution. So at that point, yes,

[34:35] I would I would hope so. And in terms of this, I don't know why this is a problem.

[34:46] And I don't know the degree of a problem that it is. I'm laying blame. I'm not laying blame.

[34:53] But to the extent that there is blame, I'm laying it on the council just as much as I am on anyone else involved, but we agree.

[35:00] That there is a problem with respect to that correct?

[35:06] No, I'm not going to say that right now because it hasn't been brought to my attention.

[35:11] And supervised the solicitors that are in that court.

[35:16] So if there is a no-show problem, then at this point I'll look into it on the following Monday,

[35:28] but this is a little bit of news to me and I'm that.

[35:35] Like for example, the net mentioned a few minutes ago

[35:40] that it's half and half.

[35:42] Some requested by the plaintiff's attorneys

[35:46] or a continuance and some simply just don't bother showing up.

[35:49] Do you know off-hand how many times the city

[35:55] and either your office or the court system

[35:58] municipally has with regard to those no shows without requests for a continuous. How many

[36:04] times have we taken the action? That's what I would consider the problem. If we have not

[36:08] taken the follow-up action as the Deputy Manager described. I don't know those numbers off top

[36:16] my head. I know that there's been a handful of them for certain. And then typically, when there

[36:23] management for $1,000 and so they've continued for three or four months and then they've got

[36:28] $1,000.

[36:29] Okay.

[36:29] I appreciate all the answers in the patience.

[36:31] Last question, as I said, not directly related, but I've interest.

[36:36] Can you tell me, Nick?

[36:38] How was, in first book, congratulations to the, or thank you to the Newport Police Department

[36:43] and all involved with Yes3's incident on the day before?

[36:48] How was Dudley Avenue registered with respect to the city?

[36:51] There are single family house under our ordinance. So there is absolutely no way where or no possibility under our local ordinance

[37:00] Where the property owner has the right to rent out on a short-term

[37:06] basis to anybody

[37:09] That is correct and we have one judgment in our municipal court, which is now on a peole to hear your court

[37:15] where we prove them guilty of renting more than five individuals that are unrelated and we

[37:22] hit them on the short-term rental of those units or of the one unit more than the, uh,

[37:29] I appreciate you clarifying that. I'm again today. We all know that property is a disaster.

[37:34] It makes us look foolish. I know we've done a great job trying to enforce it, but uh,

[37:39] I will deal with that, or I will work with my colleagues to follow up on on that particular situation.

[37:44] I thank you all for your patience.

[37:48] And just the last note on this page,

[37:51] you know, it's just to come up with some efforts,

[37:53] I think when we're going, or especially on appeal,

[37:56] there's several of these that we get.

[37:58] We got a judgment from our municipal court judge.

[38:01] There are attorneys take that up on appeal,

[38:03] and the primary way that we charge them

[38:08] and find them guilty is around the advertisement

[38:10] of these short-term rentals,

[38:11] And it's been more difficult to get them found guilty

[38:15] on the actual rental of the units, which seems crazy.

[38:21] But right now, we primarily have to bring forward evidence

[38:24] through a firsthand fact witness of someone

[38:27] that has stayed at one of these units

[38:30] in order to find that owner guilty of actually renting.

[38:34] So I think that this listener and I have had a discussion

[38:38] recently about using or trying to

[38:41] to pressure the superior court to accept active

[38:44] advertisements linked with active guest reviews because the guest reviews

[38:49] really can only be put by people that actually stay there and within a short period of time

[38:53] after they have stayed there which to me seems like proof of this illegal operation

[38:59] and to have to get essentially what we call a door knock or knock and talk

[39:04] and get someone that is willing to testify against the host of Airbnb is very difficult these days.

[39:12] So, one of the ways that we were able to get, well, Dudley actually convicted was that we had someone who had actually been living there,

[39:20] and we were able to bring them to the municipal court and have them testify about their living conditions there.

[39:26] We can't get that with every single short-term rental that we sight into for.

[39:34] And this is kind of perfectly connected, but the deputy city manager wanted me to bring

[39:42] kind of a just a clarification regarding the seasonal rentals, so we kind of touched on those

[39:47] at the very beginning. But, you know, seasonal rentals are the what we call 30 data nine month rentals.

[39:53] They were seem to have historically been put in place to combat party houses and track

[39:59] All of the students in Nape.

[40:00] We need to be housing, all of which seems to have declined in recent years. We only have a little

[40:07] overhang. It was 240 or so, 246 registered seasonal rentals. There are, we think that there

[40:16] is likely more than that, but there has never been like a widespread effort to educate people

[40:21] that if they are wrenching for 30 days or longer that they need to register with the city, so

[40:26] kind of people volunteering that information, you know, part of us questions what benefit we're

[40:32] getting from registering just these people as opposed to all rentals. We require minimum housing

[40:40] inspection for seasonal rentals, which primarily involves, you know, looking at some simple life

[40:45] safety things as well as the lease is required to be posted on the back of the door of the

[40:51] seasonal rentals, but we actually don't do regular inspections of long-term rentals,

[40:57] which is a primary way that people live in Newport.

[41:01] So, you know, something we thought we'd kind of bring that up as a conversation starter

[41:05] here.

[41:07] So, whether we should, you know, proactively be sending letters to all properties and say,

[41:11] you know, if you rent on a seasonal basis, a month a month, or up to nine months, you

[41:16] need to register, pushing out maybe communications through communications team to get people

[41:21] in the compliance here. But as I touch on in the next slide. Providence has drafted an ordinance

[41:29] to require that all rental properties register within the city regardless of whether you're

[41:34] short-term mid-term or long-term, near-against it requires that as well. They have to register

[41:39] with the building inspector for $120 a year and there's late fees, failure to register fees. But just

[41:46] So that everyone is kind of processed through the same system.

[41:51] And then we also recently found that there's a state law that requires all rental properties,

[41:58] must be registered with the state.

[42:00] What I found when I did a search through their databases, that only 1,400 properties within

[42:04] new port of the 5,500 rental properties are actually registered with the state.

[42:10] So I don't know if people don't, aren't aware that they need to register with the state

[42:13] on this.

[42:14] It's not that we would get anything out of it, but it is somewhere where the landlords have to report who they are, and so I think that it helps with tenant rights.

[42:22] Are you saying that every rental in the city would have to register?

[42:28] Right now, under state law, that appears to be the requirement, is that they

[42:36] rent to people, you have to register with the state database, and it looks like only 1,400 properties

[42:41] in Newport.

[42:41] Because I don't think anybody knows it.

[42:44] And so again, one of the suggestions is having the discussion whether we're getting a benefit

[42:49] out of registering the seasonal rentals, whether we would have some benefit of registering

[42:54] any rental within Newport, whether it's for a fee or not just to understand where

[42:58] our rental properties are, but it just, it does seem a little bit odd for us that we require

[43:04] the seasonal rentals register right now for a small fee and we don't track any on the long-term

[43:11] rentals but again we think that there's probably more seasonal rentals out there that are actually

[43:15] registered with the city. If we caught any through the two tier tests, I do not know the answer to that.

[43:26] That's all I really have for you right now, happy to answer any other questions,

[43:30] Um, other newer members of the community.

[43:34] Help some of you.

[43:35] I have a couple of questions.

[43:37] So please bear with me.

[43:39] So I just want to clarify that there currently isn't a ban on new short-term rentals outside of the residential zones.

[43:46] Correct.

[43:46] We allow them buy right in the waterfront business in general business and through a special use permit for the limited business.

[43:52] Okay.

[43:53] And is the state definition and the local or municipal definition of short-term rentals are those in line, or is there any discrepancy?

[44:05] They're off by one day.

[44:08] We say that it is less than 30 days, it's considered short-term. They have 30 days or less.

[44:13] Okay.

[44:16] And do we know how many applicants in the past year that have come before zoning, planning to increase the bedroom count of their home or to put in an ADU?

[44:31] Do we know how many of those were then converted to a short-term rental?

[44:40] I don't think I would have to pull all of our numbers and figure out how many, are you

[44:45] seeing people that created dwellings and then turn them into short-term rentals?

[44:50] I would say very few of any.

[44:53] Okay.

[44:53] 80Us are not allowed to be short-term rented by state law and by our city ordinance.

[44:59] So, and we've-

[45:00] Not had a ton of ADU approvals, even fewer that have needed zoning relief to get an ADU, but most

[45:08] people are not building a brand new house and then converting it to a short-term rental. We've

[45:13] had a couple applications for vacation guest facilities so that, again, it has to be a minimum

[45:19] of 10 units within that. Think of it as a kind of like a hotel, but more like a time share. These

[45:27] properties that contain at least 10 units, they can be 1, 2, or 3 bedroom units, they can

[45:32] have occasions, and again they could be short-term rented or kind of longer term. We've had

[45:38] one that was approved, but is still working through the process at 144 themes and another one

[45:43] at 105 Broadway where the parking pockets. Though we have been actually contacted by the attorney

[45:49] of that property that they are looking to potentially convert that to residential housing as opposed

[45:55] to the vacation guest facility. So it may be a sign that there's not enough interest out there

[46:02] to actually purchase that property to develop it into a vacation facility.

[46:06] Absolutely. Can I ask you a question, or through you, Asuka, since it was just noted,

[46:12] you mentioned two properties, which would fit the 10 or more requirement. One of them you said was

[46:20] 244 themes and you said they're working their way through the process. That 144 to 150

[46:24] themes is, in fact, an existing court case, correct? It's not working its way through our

[46:33] system. It has been challenged in superior court, correct? As opposed to Broadway. Thank you.

[46:38] Thank you, Councillor.

[46:39] You're welcome. So a couple more questions for you. Do we know how many year-long rentals

[46:47] have been reduced to short-term rentals in the past year?

[46:52] What given we've only had seven new applications, and then technically 14 if you include

[46:58] the ones we brought in compliance, I'd say that's the maximum number that we would have

[47:02] seen that have been converted.

[47:03] Okay.

[47:04] I would say many of those are apartments, so I wouldn't call them a whole house.

[47:10] It's a two-bedroom apartment above a thames street property that has been converted into a

[47:16] short-term rent.

[47:16] So it's not most of them are not full properties that are being heard.

[47:21] Okay. And how many of the general business and and waterfront business guest houses do we have?

[47:30] We did not poll date a district by district. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay.

[47:34] Easily do that but we don't. Yeah, I was looking. Yeah, we do have the map.

[47:42] Okay.

[47:42] Yeah, Phoenix has the map, anything that has the red house is a short-term rental that includes hotels,

[47:51] but there is a pretty large red area down in the water from business companies area.

[47:59] And my last question, so some of the recommended ordinance changes was that to get a handle also on the parking issue,

[48:09] So that residents aren't continuing to be impacted by not being able to find parking on their street in front of their house,

[48:20] or especially if they don't have driveways.

[48:23] Do we know what streets in particular are being more impacted than others?

[48:30] We would have to look back at every property that we have approved of parking variants on.

[48:34] it's relatively spread out, I mean, I think we do see a concentration around themes in spring

[48:39] street. Those are kind of the primary ones, which, again, are in districts that allow this

[48:46] use, whether it's through the special use, or by right. But back to your kind of initial part of

[48:51] the question, we did propose this change to the parking, so essentially would, in effect, do a

[48:57] way with parking variance is being able to be granted, because it would be the use being defined

[49:03] as requiring the on-site parking for whatever number of bedrooms they have so they can't just

[49:08] maximize the five bedrooms because the guest house use allows that without being able to

[49:12] provide the parking maybe they're only able to get a couple of rooms to be used because they have

[49:19] the parking for a couple of spaces. Okay thank you. Any other questions on the council? Sure.

[49:27] So I know folks in the audience want to speak as well.

[49:31] They can speak at the end when we're done.

[49:33] Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[49:36] Nick.

[49:38] Is the following situation prohibited by ordinance?

[49:43] A short-term rental goes before the zoning board.

[49:48] And requests a variance or off-site parking.

[49:51] Quarter mile half mile would have you.

[49:53] Because they do not have the appropriate on-site parking for their rental.

[49:59] They receive.

[50:00] Receive that variance from the zoning board subsequently seek from the city of Newport, guest passes, guest parking passes.

[50:10] Do we prohibit issuing those guest parking passes to short-term rentals who are testifying that they have provided?

[50:20] My understanding is we did change the rules because there was a gap there in our ordinance that that allowed for the guest passage to be provided to a property owner regardless of what the use was.

[50:31] And, and forgive me, I don't second guess you, but I second guess you and I second guess myself and I second guess the whole ordinance related ordinance is Mr. Deputy manager, do you agree with that?

[50:48] There was a, so the parking passes in this last overhaul, I'll call it, or the, with the residential parking program.

[50:59] We did not look at guest passes as a, as a whole, but with the short-term rentals, the short-term rental properties.

[51:11] the, we did not issue the guest parking passes for properties that were registered as short-term rentals.

[51:20] But the guest pass property as a whole, where we speak about the transient guest facilities,

[51:28] we did not remove, we did not remove the guest passes from all properties.

[51:34] It was very selective.

[51:37] So, then, according both of your answers, there are likely presumably many short-term rental

[51:45] facilities, transient facilities, which distribute yes-parking passes to their tenants.

[51:53] Correct?

[51:53] That's the potentials there.

[51:55] Does it exist?

[51:56] Not the potential.

[51:57] Does it exist?

[51:58] Oh, Michael.

[52:00] Okay.

[52:01] That, I think, we need to address.

[52:03] But

[52:07] I would say the good thing about that is that it's not specifically in the zoning ordinance, which the zoning ordinance, you know, takes

[52:12] several rounds plus a lot of advertisement to correct if it is in a different section of the ordinance, then we can get that to a lot quicker to make that closing

[52:25] The

[52:48] car moving situation, very out of

[52:53] turn

[52:53] So just one quick note, so Nick, when when you have these properties that need a variance need parking elsewhere

[53:02] Those parking spots are inspected just to make sure that they are, I know you have to

[53:07] see a lease.

[53:09] But we're double-checking to make sure they're, yeah, so essentially what I do is it

[53:13] analysis of the uses on that leasing property to determine what their parking requirement

[53:20] is under the code.

[53:22] And they have to have an excess of parking is what I call it.

[53:25] So if that the uses on that property require 20 spaces and they have 25 spaces, they effectively

[53:30] we have five and they could kind of give out to this lease that is provided to us again

[53:36] on the basis.

[53:39] Now, that's a great great question, Mr. Chair, and the zoning officer and I have been

[53:43] speaking about this for about a year or now, also we're going to be consulting currently

[53:50] speaking with our superintendent, parking authority, who is also here this evening to talk

[53:55] about just that fact, some of these commercial lots even by the lots that are entering into

[54:01] these engagements for these parking variants is to satisfy the parking requirements

[54:06] that some of these properties, as well as some other contracts, so to speak, with some

[54:14] of the some of the local, you've seen these parking lots that are coming into town that

[54:19] are in town engaging with some of the local property owners as a business, and utilizing

[54:25] in those spaces. So we are aware of that and we are going to be finding ways to seek compliance,

[54:33] keep it better. I am thanks to make sure that there's no double dipping in these lots and

[54:38] where these properties are supposed to. They have a minimum requirement for parking in those

[54:43] spaces yet. They are renting those spaces also, which essentially is displacing those tenants

[54:50] either commercial or residential properties out onto the streets.

[54:54] So we are aware that and that will be addressed with these superintendant apartment authority in the zoning officer.

[55:00] But keep in mind, and I think the zoning officer was trying to emphasize this, is that in these cases, a variance for the parking requirements was going to be granted based on the standards in the state law.

[55:16] So, this is extra, this is on top of not having them, and they could have easily been a variance in these cases, without even those least spaces requirements.

[55:32] So, it's fine, everyone to realize that and the zoning office that was trying to emphasize that, that fact.

[55:39] Well, that's one of the big issues since we were talking about the short-term rental and the zoning aspect of it is the parking.

[55:48] That's I think that's where I think a lot of the residents have had the issue, especially in the tight neighborhood.

[55:54] So downtown between faves and spring has been noted.

[55:59] I mean, anything we can do to.

[56:10] That program is that going to incorporate the parking challenges that zoning looks over as well?

[56:16] Are they going to be, yeah, it's definitely part of the conversation.

[56:20] We're going to be looking at all the properties that are advertising paid at park on a daily basis,

[56:26] checking that they have client parking.

[56:29] You know, we do have our comprehensive plan being worked on right now,

[56:32] which I think we'll have some recommendations on how to improve our parking situation,

[56:36] the parking standards were put in place in the 70s, and so some of them are appropriate

[56:41] and some of them are a little bit outdated in front of figure out if we're requiring the

[56:45] appropriate number of spaces, whether that's higher or lower, then our standards currently

[56:50] require, and then things such as shared use parking arrangements between multiple properties

[56:59] that have uses that take place at different times of the day that maybe utilize the same

[57:03] market spaces, so we're not kind of putting paid parking lots everywhere in the city.

[57:08] It's pretty quickly, can't you?

[57:11] I know, in this conversation, the assumption is that every short-term rental landlord

[57:21] basically there, their tenants or their visitors are coming by car, every single one of them.

[57:28] This is the assumption we're going by.

[57:29] Has there been any conversation or any study or any question of just, you know, of these applicants that come in about how many of their guests are actually driving cars in the town?

[57:44] We have not done this video on that. I think it would be a good thing to do with, you know, in consultation with people that are operating the short-term rentals.

[57:52] we would, you know, we have all of their information

[57:54] and can potentially do some sort of survey to find out.

[57:57] You know, we require one space for bedroom of a guest house.

[58:01] You know, I think some people think that that is too high

[58:03] that people aren't bringing five cars when they have a five bedroom guest house.

[58:07] If they're bringing a family, they may only have one car or two cars.

[58:11] So, again, it's kind of stems from this older code

[58:15] that we have that required this one per bedroom requirement.

[58:18] I think it actually stems from the requirements

[58:20] that were put on hotels that required one for unit of a hotel required of a car.

[58:26] So is there a way to get information as to voters who come in and stay at short-term rentals?

[58:35] Is there a way to get that kind of information through?

[58:41] Again, I think it would require us asking our current operators of guest houses,

[58:47] It's probably to ask for their service,

[58:50] the people that are renting from them,

[58:53] how they're getting there every time.

[58:55] I know that some of them put on their advertisement

[58:58] that they only have one on site parking space,

[59:00] so don't bring more than one car.

[59:03] I don't know that they can force every one of their clients

[59:06] to follow that.

[59:08] I think that there's an economic impact study

[59:10] on now about races and happening in the harbor.

[59:17] And the number of people who do business on the land side, you know?

[59:25] So I don't know, maybe there might be some information through them.

[59:29] I think it's the maritime alliance.

[59:31] Any other questions?

[59:35] All right.

[59:35] I think we'll take the time now to take turn it over to the public.

[59:38] Anyone that would like to come up with any comments.

[59:41] Questions?

[59:42] Please come up to the podium.

[59:43] State your name and address.

[59:46] No, no.

[59:46] sort of once.

[59:48] No, no.

[59:52] I think they're all looking at me since I go.

[59:55] Of course.

[59:55] I'll do it first.

[59:58] Good evening.

[59:59] My name's Mitch Edward.

[1:00:00] Words have had the privilege of appearing before you before representing the Rhode Island short-term rental association and the new board property rights association.

[1:00:09] And I'll be brief, but I just wanted to focus on the last issue that we were all talking about parking, because it's important to you and it's important to everyone back here and it's important to the residents of Newport.

[1:00:23] And I think one thing that a survey, which you were talking about might help, is to really

[1:00:29] understand what would the impact be on these short-term rentals in the commercial zone

[1:00:35] if you were to require what I understand to be the proposal of one, you have to have

[1:00:42] a parking space for every bedroom.

[1:00:45] And some of these have four or five bedrooms, and they don't have four or five spots or even possibly two or three.

[1:00:55] Because they do anticipate what was suggested, which is one car with a family coming in part.

[1:01:03] And my concern, and I think the concern of many short-term rental owners, is if this was imposed, it would essentially just be like,

[1:01:11] don't have a short-term rental anymore.

[1:01:15] And that is probably the concern you'll hear from others, among, among, I'm sure, other

[1:01:21] concerns.

[1:01:22] So, excuse me, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Edwards, and I'll bring the solicitor in on this.

[1:01:28] You are aware that that concern regarding your existing clients' mood, since this would

[1:01:33] not affect should the proposed ordinance changes as adopted on first round be adopted as

[1:01:41] second round and becoming new board ordinance, your clients are protected. Mr. B&M I correct?

[1:01:50] Yes. So, in other words, if there's an existing legal use registered at present and we

[1:01:57] change those requirements, they'd be grandfathered in. I believe the attorney ed was known.

[1:02:04] I fully aware of it. I appreciate the comment. Indeed, that was something that the council

[1:02:10] emphasize back in the spring. And I get, just so you understand where I'm coming from

[1:02:16] on that, the Rhode Island short-term rentalization isn't just, and the new poor property rights

[1:02:23] association isn't just concerned about those who currently have short-term rentals, but those

[1:02:28] that will get the prospect of which this law or ordinance potentially could impact depending

[1:02:35] how you all decide to go. And that concern is, well, I won't be able to get the short-term

[1:02:43] rental that fair point that I want to get in the future or one that I planned on getting

[1:02:50] or one that I've invested and don't have approval yet, but I've invested all my resources in

[1:02:57] and this ordinance comes out while I'm doing that, right? Like folks who are sort of caught

[1:03:02] taught in the middle. And so, I think if you're going to go down the road, which I think is a good

[1:03:09] road to go down, survey some folks to find out information. I think it's a very good idea. One

[1:03:15] I was going to suggest, but didn't need to because you all in your wisdom came up with it on your own.

[1:03:22] There's probably more questions that you want to know. And I know the folks might

[1:03:29] I apply it and those who I represent in terms of being members of the association, I'm sure

[1:03:36] would be happy to give you information because it's actually something to buy there all

[1:03:40] here and I suspect I can stop talking and you can hear from them directly, but I appreciate

[1:03:46] the time.

[1:03:47] Attorney Edwards, the panel of the question was Chairman, if I might, I appreciate your answer

[1:03:51] to that in the clarification from solicitor B and would you be satisfied if the council

[1:03:58] should we enact the ordinance, amended, or the proposed ordinance, amended the proposed

[1:04:05] ordinance to, in fact, ensure the same type of guarantees that are given to existing

[1:04:13] properties to those properties which are legitimately in the process, the concern you

[1:04:19] raised three minutes to so go, of becoming such a registered property. I'm not suggesting

[1:04:25] that we ensure such for six months, 12 months, a year or two years, five years down the road,

[1:04:32] but those which are legitimately in the process of seeking such registration.

[1:04:38] So, Councilman Carl, and I think what I would say is that would be a great improvement,

[1:04:44] but it wouldn't satisfy all of our concerns. Understanding we're probably not going to

[1:04:53] don't think that the parking should be based on how many bedrooms and we might...

[1:05:00] We'll never be able to bridge that gap. But I do think it would be a great improvement. So those who are in the process are caught up in that issue.

[1:05:09] Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

[1:05:13] Thank you.

[1:05:13] Can I ask a

[1:05:21] question?

[1:05:23] I wanted to ask a question.

[1:05:26] This is a state-of-name address.

[1:05:27] Yeah, I'm Sarah Adams, and I own nine good ones tree.

[1:05:33] How many of you have actually rented a short-term rental before?

[1:05:39] I was just curious, because I do think that there's some misunderstandings

[1:05:44] about what it offers that's different from a lot of people put us in the same category

[1:05:49] as hotels or B&Bs and kind of what set us apart.

[1:05:54] So I just was curious how many had actually gone through the process of going on the website, searching, saying in one and all that.

[1:06:06] I wanted to thank you for acknowledging the inflation of that 1,000 Airbnb short-term rental number that's been thrown around three years.

[1:06:16] that has really, really bothered most of us,

[1:06:19] because we know that we've worked really hard

[1:06:21] on making sure we're in clients and following all the rules.

[1:06:25] And we've always known that those numbers are not accurate,

[1:06:28] and I actually like deep dove the websites myself

[1:06:31] and saw the different properties that are actually

[1:06:35] that in breakfast that are listing per bedroom

[1:06:38] on the same sites that we're listing our whole rentals.

[1:06:42] And if you're on more than one site,

[1:06:44] It's all being duplicated at the end of the day, the numbers that are registered are still

[1:06:49] the same numbers, and there's not a thousand short-term rentals. It's less than 2% of the entire

[1:06:57] housing stock of the city, and we are in a business so I wanted to talk since this is like a workshop

[1:07:07] and I know we like maybe have a little bit more time. I really do not understand why the parking

[1:07:12] requirement is different. When my house is rented for less than 30 days, then it would

[1:07:21] be if I rented for 30 days, or if I rented for two months, or why I can't rent my house

[1:07:31] to my own family. I have three children. We have a 30-foot-long driveway, but because it's

[1:07:39] back to back parking as a short term rental I have not is what I'm told. I don't know if

[1:07:46] you're aware of that. We went for our variance and it was denied. I could go and rent

[1:07:53] spots. Well why would my tenants want a park half a mile when I have a 30 foot long driveway?

[1:08:02] You did take my hang tag away from me, so you're parking rules, they are working, just so you know, I was not given my hang tag, they are enforcing it, and my neighbors were also not given their hang tags, so we live in a very harmonious street, everyone talks to each other, we have a mix of long term residence, short term residence, and short term rentals on our street.

[1:08:30] We all respect each other, no one has any issues because they know that it's our choice.

[1:08:37] Everyone on the street knows that they have a right to do it.

[1:08:41] We have a right to do it as long as we're falling the rules and we're respecting each other.

[1:08:45] There hasn't been any issues.

[1:08:47] What I don't like what has been in the conversation is if you pass this,

[1:08:53] The select houses on our street that are not currently short-term renting can never, but they have to be surrounded by other homes that can.

[1:09:03] It doesn't make any sense.

[1:09:05] It's only going to cause segregation on the street.

[1:09:08] It's going to cause animosity and it's going to affect property values.

[1:09:11] It makes no sense. It also doesn't make any sense.

[1:09:14] While I on the proposed ordinance changes, I can change my house to be a daycare.

[1:09:19] I can be a church, apparently I won't rather turn it into a boat marina.

[1:09:24] And I just have to go and apply, I don't need a variance,

[1:09:28] but you're honing in on guest houses as being a problem,

[1:09:32] but you're not, I think there's like 15 other businesses

[1:09:35] or more that I can run out of my home without asking for a variance.

[1:09:40] So I just don't understand all of these.

[1:09:44] It just, not a bit makes any sense for frustrating,

[1:09:50] I also want to talk about why the Max

[1:09:52] Fine is a thousand dollars when someone is illegally renting.

[1:09:58] I pay that just in my registration.

[1:10:01] I'm sorry. Never mind the filing fee. I also lost my hang tag sticker, which, by the way, I wasn't even using my rentals, because I wouldn't, I don't have the energy to chase it down if someone leaves with it. So it was non, it wasn't relevant, but it was taken. And so when my family comes to see us and we're here, I don't have one to offer to them, but it's okay.

[1:10:25] I just a lot of these things don't make any sense if what you're proposing is supposed to encourage for housing and more long-term rentals than a three-better house that was renting as a two-better rental, which is what I currently have, could turn around and rent as a three-better and long-term rental with three cars.

[1:10:48] But I only have a driveway that can fit two and there's no regulations on that in regards to a long-term rental.

[1:10:56] So where does that other cargo?

[1:10:58] I just, I don't understand how this helps anyone.

[1:11:02] I don't understand how this would create housing.

[1:11:05] I don't understand why we're trying to segregate streets in a very small district where this is allowed to say,

[1:11:11] OK, well, those five homes that are currently registered, they can keep doing it.

[1:11:16] But that one and that one and that one that are in the middle of those homes, they can't do that.

[1:11:22] That we're taking that purpose away from them.

[1:11:24] I just, I don't think that's good for the neighborhoods.

[1:11:27] I don't think that's good for the climate of the city.

[1:11:29] I think there's something important about choice.

[1:11:32] And I think that it's a small, small area.

[1:11:36] We shouldn't be touching the business districts in regards to restricting the businesses that they can run as long as we're following the rules.

[1:11:43] We're registering. I just, I guess that's kind of all I want to say. Thank you, Ms. Adams.

[1:11:52] Mr. Chairman, it's my day. Thank you. First of all, excellent excellent points.

[1:11:59] Particularly when you mentioned the parking situation for longer than short-term rental facilities, residences, whatever you'd like to call them.

[1:12:10] I have heard plenty of complaints, particularly on streets like Carol Avenue, Thames, Spring,

[1:12:18] Narraganset, Harris, you name me.

[1:12:21] I could stay here until next Tuesday in name all the streets, where there are those type

[1:12:25] of concerns with respect to parking.

[1:12:29] Why?

[1:12:30] Shame on this Council, shame on me for not proposing an ordinance, which would restrict the amount

[1:12:36] parking do for not just short-term or entitled to or not entitled to, not just short-term rentals,

[1:12:43] but others, not in specific terms 12-month parking because those tend to be folks who have

[1:12:53] decided to live if not live and work here in Newport, but I'm thinking in particular of, for example,

[1:13:00] survey, regaining university parking, at houses that are not short term rental, excellent

[1:13:05] excellent points.

[1:13:06] Tell me please, when your family comes to visit, why can't you use one of your three entitled

[1:13:11] parking stickers?

[1:13:14] Do you not reside in vote in Newport?

[1:13:18] Do you reside in Newport?

[1:13:20] I do.

[1:13:23] I do.

[1:13:26] I do.

[1:13:27] I do.

[1:13:30] I do.

[1:13:31] I do.

[1:13:32] underlying, I don't want to get into it. I don't want to get into it back and forth here,

[1:13:36] but the underlying ordinances that have a lot to do with how we define what we will

[1:13:42] allow in the city are governed by who lives here, for example, for tax purposes, and for

[1:13:50] two tiered tax purposes specifically, who lives here full time, and who doesn't. And so there

[1:13:57] There's a reason why you do not have the tag.

[1:14:01] And I just want to make sure that we are being clear that the city is going to stick around

[1:14:04] my car.

[1:14:05] I am, I have a property here, sir, but that doesn't go.

[1:14:08] So why don't you have three tags, Mr. Deputy Manager?

[1:14:13] She entitled to three tags as a property owner here in Newport under the recently adopted

[1:14:20] with new parking regulations, she would qualify as an R2 resident or a non-resident but

[1:14:29] property owner and so entitled to a single three correct, three stickers she's allowed.

[1:14:35] I don't think you should like devalue what I'm saying. I have not devalued anything you

[1:14:39] said. In fact, I am trying to make a case for you to get the parking stickers back if you're

[1:14:45] your cars on your street. I only need one. You said when your family comes to visit. Me. You can't. They don't

[1:14:52] live here. Everything you're telling me based on the ordinances we just passed. You're months ago.

[1:15:01] A little bit of a different, a little bit of a different scenario. I appreciate you taking the time, thank you.

[1:15:11] can I just say I mean you're not a resident and you pay the non-resident tax so you pay more taxes

[1:15:19] than it would if you were to be a resident. I actually was going to forget I have in I have a

[1:15:26] suggestion. A suggestion is along with the parking and the stuff we've talked about. While I can't

[1:15:33] we have an option when we register our short term rental to select if we are rented by room

[1:15:38] for a full home rental. I think that makes a big difference in how you perceive our properties

[1:15:44] who we're renting to and how many cars are being brought to this property. A whole house rental

[1:15:51] is not the same as someone who is renting a bedroom. I have three children and per your standards

[1:15:59] I would not be allowed to rent my own house. And my children don't drive cars. So I just want to

[1:16:05] that clear. Airbnb requires us to acknowledge what type of rental we are. It's a filter in Airbnb,

[1:16:14] but when we're registering with the city, you're not asking us to stipulate a difference between

[1:16:18] our rental to a different one. And there is a difference. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:16:25] True, is that is the state? Ask that if there's a full, if it's a whole house or a room, not just

[1:16:30] Okay,

[1:16:38] my name is Shane Cooper, I'm actually currently a resident of Berington, I'll now

[1:16:42] I spend good 16 hours of my day here, and eventually we'll be here full-time

[1:16:49] trust me about that, I really hate that this issue is what brings together to divide

[1:16:54] us.

[1:16:55] It's, we waste so much time on it, when we really could be getting to the root cause

[1:17:01] of the problems, every one of you guys are here because of Parker.

[1:17:05] We have, that's our wish, but we don't do anything to actually solve them, because what

[1:17:10] we both, if you even been future Airbnb's or short-term rentals, it's not going to create

[1:17:16] new parking out of thin air to take cars off the street.

[1:17:20] What we need here is to solve the root cause of the problem.

[1:17:24] I had a conversation with a council member who likely won't be returning this year, and

[1:17:30] indicated to me that there was a lot of just fear among council members to do what is

[1:17:35] going to be hard. To deal with nimbees, to deal with the few people that really

[1:17:41] want or like prevent progress in this city. What we need is parking and there are lots

[1:17:49] that you guys are aware of. I don't need to go into each and every one of them.

[1:17:53] that could be expanded either, you know, vertically or underground. And there are methods in place

[1:18:01] that you guys could come up with such bonds or whatnot to create the funds to build these,

[1:18:09] than charge people to park there. I bet it could be a bit of a generated for the city. I mean

[1:18:14] nine months later, the city people are driving around circles looking for a park and if you could

[1:18:21] get people off the roads, they're looking for parking,

[1:18:24] it would drastically reduce the congestion.

[1:18:27] It's in, and if there's streets where it can just in,

[1:18:31] people could find parking, we wouldn't be here today.

[1:18:33] I mean, facet, I think that the number of units

[1:18:37] are going to be short-term or are essentially what they are.

[1:18:40] They may go up or down a few every year,

[1:18:43] but it's not going to be a drastic swing one way or another.

[1:18:47] At the end of the day, I think taking us a lot like Mary Street

[1:18:50] and expanding its capabilities, especially in those districts that have all the red there that

[1:18:56] were worried about.

[1:18:58] I mean, we all know that there's going to be no more short-term rentals in the areas that

[1:19:02] aren't either general business or waterfront for the most part limited business to a degree,

[1:19:09] but it's such a tiny little fraction because the limitations there, the obstacles are already

[1:19:14] falling.

[1:19:16] And in those areas there, those are the areas that are suggested that everybody hates to

[1:19:20] down because parking is difficult. Why is difficult again? Because there's no parking spots.

[1:19:29] And, you know, I think that we just have to as a city and, you know, come together and say,

[1:19:34] you know, there are a select view that don't want to increase the size of a lot like Mary.

[1:19:40] But it's for the public, you guys come together and say, listen, you know, I know and I understand

[1:19:46] your position, but I think increasing and doing what is right for the overall city as a whole

[1:19:51] is going to be needed.

[1:19:53] Mr. Chairman, excuse me. I appreciate your comments. A select few, more than a select few,

[1:19:58] would be.

[1:20:00] Deeply opposed to the expansion of the Mary Street Lot, and to an intrusion of physical infrastructure. Well, you should ask the folks, perhaps, who oppose that, but how many of these type of facilities that you are suggesting for Newport did they have in Barrington now?

[1:20:17] How many of these underground parking lots, existing parking lots being expanded into neighborhood infrastructure, et cetera? How many of these did they have in Barrington?

[1:20:27] It's a simple answer that a variant in is not a tourist destination and it never will be it doesn't have t-shirt shops

[1:20:33] It's got like I bet if you I could count the number of restaurants the entire town on one hand

[1:20:39] There it is not a place the only reason you go to barring to this because it's got good schools

[1:20:44] full stop. I mean, you know doctors move there because it's close enough to Rhode Island

[1:20:48] Hospital that they could be within 20 minutes, but they're kid in a good school and that's essentially it

[1:20:53] it is not Newport and never will be, it's just, it's a different way of light.

[1:20:58] So as long as Barrington feels comfortable in their quality of life, it's all right to impose

[1:21:03] on the quality of life of Newport residents who oppose the expansion of these type of things.

[1:21:08] Colonel, is, do you ever see Newport abandoning its tourism industry and going to something like

[1:21:15] tech or industry? Are we going to become a manufacturing hub? What is the goal?

[1:21:22] You should ask our council candidate, Beth Cohen, who has many ideas about that, which I support.

[1:21:29] You were, you were for getting rid of terrorism in Newport.

[1:21:34] All right.

[1:21:34] We're getting off the topic here.

[1:21:37] We're just talking about our short-term mental situation here to workshop not,

[1:21:41] not revenue and development of the city.

[1:21:43] It is the root cause.

[1:21:45] And there are solutions, guys, if we work together,

[1:21:47] that I think that, you know, it's just going to take some brave council members to get it done.

[1:21:53] Because there is going to be headwinds, but if you guys ban and understand what is good with the long term for the city, it is part.

[1:22:03] And then we can stop all this argument all this time that we waste gear, this particular matter, over and over again.

[1:22:11] I mean, if you were to add up the number of hours wasted on this, I'm sure it would take

[1:22:18] less work, honestly, to get the parking in as opposed to what it takes to get this stuff.

[1:22:22] Thank you.

[1:22:23] Thank you Mr. Cooper.

[1:22:24] You know, we have worked on the parking issue.

[1:22:27] We've changed the parking rules.

[1:22:31] We've tried to reduce the number of parking stickers that we give out.

[1:22:37] we certainly ban short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods.

[1:22:43] We've done a lot of that work, but I agree with you,

[1:22:46] that billifying tourism is not helpful.

[1:22:50] And this is the bread and butter of our city.

[1:22:55] And I can hear people laughing, but the fact of the matter

[1:22:58] is that it's been that way for a very long time.

[1:23:02] And it's one of the reasons why we're so resilient.

[1:23:04] Um, you know, if, uh, let's say, um, the toy, what the one in Patucket, the Hasbro leaves

[1:23:14] Patucket, it's a huge blow to that area.

[1:23:18] I mean, that, that's just the way it is.

[1:23:20] We are resilient because people want to come here and they spend a lot of money and people

[1:23:25] who don't live here and own property pay a lot of taxes more than I do.

[1:23:30] So, you know, I understand what you're coming from, but we have been looking on these issues.

[1:23:36] Just so, you know, we have been, we've taken some dramatic steps, but, you know, and I don't agree with this.

[1:23:43] I don't agree.

[1:23:45] I mean, I think the difference between you and what you guys have done, implicitly, I'm not criticizing

[1:23:50] what I have done.

[1:23:52] I'm just saying it needs to go a step further, is that you guys have done the restriction

[1:23:56] that that can only go so far.

[1:23:58] Ultimately, we need really more part of it.

[1:24:01] I mean, look at other towns, coastal towns that have population draws, go to Portland

[1:24:06] or places that, you know, other spots in New Hampshire, Maine, along the water, they

[1:24:12] build garages.

[1:24:13] Are they ugly, they can't be, or you can do things to make them look somewhat attractive

[1:24:20] in, ultimately, they solve a big issue.

[1:24:24] And Mr. Knight.

[1:24:25] Mr. Cooper, thank you so much.

[1:24:26] I appreciate the time. We have all the time.

[1:24:30] I would just like to comment that I partially agree with what he has said, parking is an issue.

[1:24:40] It's an issue for residents, it's an issue for visitors.

[1:24:45] We need a system, a transportation system.

[1:24:48] We have lots that, certainly, we have a lot outside of what everybody considers the city coming in right off Pano High.

[1:25:01] We have the gateway center. There are other places where we could put lots, but we need a transportation system. So people can get out of their cars if their big cities have figured this out. You go into a hotel, they grab your car and they take it elsewhere. You don't see it anymore. That's the way it should be a new port in terms of the city council.

[1:25:29] time where they can walk or if they had and I have mentioned this smaller buses. I hate

[1:25:38] the 60 foot buses, do the jittneys, have a fleet of jittneys. I just think there's a

[1:25:46] different way that we need to travel around Newport so everybody can enjoy it. Not only

[1:25:52] the people that live here but the desert.

[1:25:56] I just wanted to add that so we do have to work on

[1:25:59] expectation system. Hi, I hope you enable five, five, three, Bill, if you have any of them.

[1:26:07] Nick and Drew, I have questions about page nine. I got a little confused about how Airbnb has

[1:26:16] 993 advertisements, but that's hard to figure out because they're multiple advertisements for

[1:26:24] the same property. I understand that and there's different types of properties. But in this

[1:26:29] In this page, you say that 468 are compliant.

[1:26:35] Are those only short-term rentals?

[1:26:40] Those 468 advertised, specific, and compliant,

[1:26:44] have a certificate of strengthening guest facility.

[1:26:47] Short-term, short-term, and less.

[1:26:51] How many people,

[1:26:56] so you're saying the rest of that,

[1:26:59] is what you've the long-term, the time shares.

[1:27:02] And how many times share buildings

[1:27:03] do we have in the community? Do you know? There's actually five time share of buildings

[1:27:07] comprising okay associations which total up to the 3342s a month. Rooms. So like the wellington?

[1:27:17] Find a bigger time share. No, no, but I mean like them. Yes. Okay.

[1:27:23] I'm working on the harbor. And then so you really think there are only 468 short-term rentals

[1:27:33] and maybe there's a few that are operating in the dark that you may not know, but just a handful.

[1:27:39] Yes, there's a small handful that are being gone.

[1:27:42] You'd repeat these and then everyone's going to want to pop up and look over research at the

[1:27:47] the advertisements are 468. There's four hundred and four that are actually registered.

[1:27:54] Okay. So four or four registered, four six-jade ads.

[1:27:57] big picture of a home that has two bedrooms, they'll have one ad for one bedroom, another

[1:28:04] ad for the second bedroom, and they can have a third ad saying I have two rooms right

[1:28:08] from both. So one property can have three ads. Okay, and then in a municipal citations,

[1:28:14] how much can you talk about the fees or the penalties or how that works because it's

[1:28:21] little confusing and then I do agree with you that $1,000 for short-term rental, like if you

[1:28:32] have a home, you pay $1,000 a year, but a hotel with 500 rooms is also paying $1,000. That seems

[1:28:39] completely unfair and wrong and I think that the council, if that's within the council's purview,

[1:28:45] should be addressed, because that's a loss of income,

[1:28:52] which is a big problem for the city,

[1:28:56] and it should be come into some kind of realistic fee,

[1:29:04] so that's those are the two questions I have.

[1:29:07] So, thanks for your first question on the citations and penalties, so we are essentially

[1:29:13] limited by state law about how much we can find people.

[1:29:17] It's a thousand dollars for a violation.

[1:29:20] It's very difficult to get a multi-day violation.

[1:29:25] We essentially send a citation in and we say,

[1:29:28] you are being notified that you are not in compliance with either

[1:29:32] the advertisement requirement or the renting

[1:29:34] compliant of the actual rental operation.

[1:29:38] And we take them to court and again,

[1:29:40] can take months, two months, several months to get them held to be found guilty, and then they

[1:29:46] are typically fine to thousand dollars. Sometimes for a first time, the judge can use his

[1:29:53] best judgment and decide whether that fine is too high. But we are limited by state law.

[1:29:58] over how much we can find people.

[1:30:01] Thank you. Yes, sir. Good evening. My name is Barton Fisk. I own a Franklin Unit 1 and 2. I grew up in Newport from 1969.

[1:30:14] Graduated Projects High School 1983, left to pursue higher education and stay away from Newport because I couldn't afford it until about five years ago.

[1:30:22] So our work and effort could be the opportunity to come back and one of the ways that I wanted

[1:30:29] to come back was to be able to offer a business or a short-term rental as I finished my career

[1:30:37] and made plans to retire here. One particular question I'm interested in is this notion of grandfather

[1:30:42] because as far as I can see anywhere in Ordinance or city code, there's no discussion of what

[1:30:51] that actually means.

[1:30:53] So the fact that I may be a registered owner,

[1:30:56] if I discontinue my continuous registration

[1:31:00] for some reason I get sick, right?

[1:31:01] Is that I don't want to do it this year?

[1:31:03] Do I have to stay continuously registered?

[1:31:07] Is the property essentially always allowed

[1:31:09] to be a short terminal of my allowed to pass that on

[1:31:12] to another owner?

[1:31:13] Do I lose that privilege?

[1:31:15] These are topics that I was really hoping

[1:31:19] for the council to say, yep, or grandfather, if you're good, that's a blanket statement.

[1:31:25] I'd really like to know more about that.

[1:31:28] So I'll table that for a second, please.

[1:31:30] I guess what I'd ask the city to consider is the spirit of air baby in the first place.

[1:31:35] The idea was home share.

[1:31:37] Somebody who haven't dealt with hand their bells, they want to be able to cover their costs

[1:31:42] and take advantage of the extra room, maybe their kids moved out.

[1:31:45] I see no segmentation of their registration so far.

[1:31:49] I can't tell whether one person who has a single bedroom

[1:31:54] and is trying to meet their bills from the data

[1:31:57] is no different from someone who has 10 properties.

[1:32:00] And clearly isn't hurting for money.

[1:32:02] They have 10 properties in Newport.

[1:32:04] And probably isn't living off of that income.

[1:32:07] That kind of segmentation would be helpful

[1:32:09] in trying to determine how to actually award

[1:32:11] renewals or to award.

[1:32:13] And there could be a process

[1:32:14] for doing that. So I guess my concern is whether or not you're unintentionally not serving

[1:32:20] your constituency. And I watched last year or two years ago when the price of their

[1:32:24] registration went from 102,000. And there was a very well-meaning citizen here who basically

[1:32:30] probably got forced out of being able to do their own short-term registration because they didn't

[1:32:36] have the money. I mean, as it is, I have to pass a $30 per day increase to all my guests just

[1:32:43] cover that $1,100 fee that was just magically created, I would like to see some accounting

[1:32:48] of where that million and a half dollars that's been raised, I'm sure we're not paying

[1:32:54] our short-term rental people, unfortunately people at much.

[1:32:59] So I guess those are the major questions, the other one that I think doesn't get raised

[1:33:03] and doesn't get looked off enough is a existence of zombie houses, meaning people who are

[1:33:08] so wealthy, they can have a house in Newport, and they don't have to live in it except

[1:33:11] for three months of the year.

[1:33:13] And there is no enforcement.

[1:33:14] There's no change in tax action.

[1:33:16] There's no looking at those folks who are probably taking

[1:33:19] up a sizable amount of the housing stock

[1:33:22] and no consideration for that.

[1:33:25] And there are other cities that have dealt with non-resident

[1:33:27] long-term owners that aren't living there.

[1:33:29] So there are solutions for that as well.

[1:33:31] Those are my thoughts.

[1:33:32] Thanks for the opportunity.

[1:33:32] Mr. Chairman.

[1:33:34] I was wrong.

[1:33:34] Thank you.

[1:33:35] I appreciate the comments of four things that you mentioned.

[1:33:38] And I will certainly leave it to our solicitor

[1:33:40] to address the legal portion, but first of all, our owner, occupied residents, do not pay a thousand

[1:33:48] dollars for a short term rental registration fee. Second, you mentioned a key word earlier

[1:33:56] in the beginning of your comments and that is to say business. You mentioned the word specifically

[1:34:01] business as it relates to what you're doing and others are doing. You all are running a business.

[1:34:07] This is not something, let's face the facts, but the most part, this is not something that helps you as a full-time

[1:34:14] Newport resident pay the taxes, sustain your lifestyle here in Newport. You're running a business.

[1:34:20] Third, with respect to what you said regarding grandfathering, my proposal, which I put forth an ordinance,

[1:34:28] or put forth, I should say, by resolution, and which was passed the four to three on the first,

[1:34:33] hearing of the proposed ordinance change with the help of the city solicitor's office

[1:34:40] and the zoning and planning offices included a what would be statutory guarantee if in fact

[1:34:48] the ordinance were to pass that is to say you would be grandfathered in by ordinance

[1:34:54] effectively by statute, and we did.

[1:35:00] Didn't do that because we had to do that. We did that because there were concerns raised and your concern tonight was, where do we see that in existing statute and existing ordinances? Well, I think the solicitor would say if this was, if that were not included hypothetically and if the ordinance proposals were to pass and it were to be challenged in court.

[1:35:23] My understanding from multiple discussions with the solicitors office and others is that the

[1:35:28] court very likely would guarantee you're existing right to do business the way that you're

[1:35:34] doing business.

[1:35:36] So we didn't need to grandfather it in by the amendment offered to the ordinances, but we did.

[1:35:43] You have solid guarantees in state law as I understand it.

[1:35:46] And then the fourth question that I wanted to answer, not because I am a lawyer, I only play

[1:35:54] one at council meetings.

[1:35:56] But I understand that so long as the business is registered or so long as the property is

[1:36:02] registered in a certain way, it continues at infinitum until it's changed, until you as the

[1:36:09] property owner or a future property owner decides to change the nature of the property.

[1:36:15] that is to say, if you decide to go from a short-term rental, and it's existing guarantees

[1:36:23] by state law and by ordinances, to, for example, a residence in only a residence.

[1:36:31] Then that is the only way, as I understand it, that certain guarantees and protections

[1:36:36] can be taken away from you, and that's what I'm trying to understand.

[1:36:39] And I appreciate your time and thank you Mr. Chairman.

[1:36:42] It's the opposite.

[1:36:43] Or am I allowed to stop actually listing and does by virtue of stopping the listing?

[1:36:49] Does that disqualify?

[1:36:51] Because I'm now wedded to this notion and I have to do it until such a time.

[1:36:56] If that's the case.

[1:36:58] And if that could be it?

[1:36:59] Nick, do you want to take that?

[1:37:00] Yeah, absolutely.

[1:37:01] So we have a section in the zoning code called our non-conforming uses and structures section.

[1:37:05] And it refers to properties that have uses on them that have either been changed like the allowance in the code has changed or has been prohibited later, such as short-term rentals,

[1:37:19] guest houses that were approved in residential zones prior to the 2022 change that prohibited them.

[1:37:25] those are allowed to continue to operate. There is a section in there that refers to an abandonment

[1:37:32] of the use. So, as Councillor Conrad mentioned, if you were to outright come to us and say,

[1:37:37] I am no longer going to operate this use, then we would essentially say it reverts to the last

[1:37:42] legal use prior to that. If you were to stop operating and for what the code says is that least

[1:37:50] one year and you don't intend to continue to use it, we can consider it to be abandoned.

[1:37:57] But most of the time the right stays with you and if you prove that you were not attempting

[1:38:02] to abandon it, that used routines on that property and it does pass to future owners.

[1:38:08] So if you have an operation right now and it's a legal operation prior to this code changing

[1:38:14] and you sell the property, it runs with the property.

[1:38:16] It runs with the property, but as so long as I own it, this tells me that I still have to register

[1:38:20] pay my registration for every year continuously and have at least one rental a year.

[1:38:25] Is that what you're saying?

[1:38:27] I would say, it wouldn't even say that you have to rent it at all.

[1:38:32] If you register with the city, I think that that's it.

[1:38:34] I'm not getting to continue registering and continue to list with Airbnb.

[1:38:39] What I'm looking for is where the evidence stops.

[1:38:42] Yeah, so.

[1:38:42] Why do you think that's not available?

[1:38:46] You

[1:38:51] know, it's really not the forum to give out legal advice here.

[1:38:55] You have, I mean, some of this is your own private dealings, your business dealings

[1:39:02] that you consult with your own legal counsel.

[1:39:06] But what the zoning officer said is accurate is that as long as you don't abandon youth

[1:39:15] and as long as the useful stay with the property, not the owner, it's not owner,

[1:39:22] Senator, that goes with the property, as long as there isn't a abandonment. What you need to do

[1:39:31] left to, I guess I'd like to see some specificity on what's up. Well, that's not the

[1:39:35] increase. I don't want to wake up one day and find out that I didn't rewrite this during now.

[1:39:44] I'm

[1:39:45] please Madam Clerk and thank you for my many questions to you by email as well as the

[1:39:53] solicitors office and zoning and planning.

[1:39:56] Madam Clerk, if a...

[1:40:00] Let's use a pizza restaurant. A pizza restaurant in Newport doesn't

[1:40:09] sell one pizza or one item to the public in the course of a year.

[1:40:14] Are they still required to register with the city of Newport as a business?

[1:40:23] If they're not selling any pizza, is that what your question is?

[1:40:27] No, it should have phrased that a lot better.

[1:40:33] It is a restaurant or any other retail operation,

[1:40:36] regardless of whether they do any business,

[1:40:39] if they would still like to be classified as a business,

[1:40:42] do they still need to register with the city of Newport

[1:40:45] each and every year to maintain their victim in license?

[1:40:50] Does I know they do?

[1:40:51] I would say yes.

[1:40:52] Of course, you need to register.

[1:40:54] You're running a business.

[1:40:56] That's my point.

[1:40:56] You need to register, regardless of whether,

[1:40:58] whether you have any tenants who you rent to, it's a requirement within our ordinances

[1:41:06] that you register.

[1:41:08] I have to meet the country for a year.

[1:41:10] Am I able to run my business?

[1:41:11] You know, you can, this is the problem.

[1:41:14] Coming up with these hypotheticals.

[1:41:16] I'm giving out advice like this.

[1:41:19] You can't fit every circumstance out there that could come up for the what is.

[1:41:25] So at some point, I think what's been said here tonight is good guidance, and you have to take it from there, and the abandonment is a fact intensive fact finding issue for a court.

[1:41:45] So it's going to be, it's not a black and white issue. It's all like, tell you.

[1:41:51] Thank you very much.

[1:41:56] My name is Lynn Sanzo and live on Spring Street.

[1:42:01] First, I do have a question about the numbers.

[1:42:05] So on this slide here, the 404 that you've come up with

[1:42:10] is the sum of the 342 plus 62.

[1:42:15] Is that right?

[1:42:17] No, it's 62 registered hotels and ends.

[1:42:20] Eight registered time share properties.

[1:42:22] two hundred and forty guest houses and ninety four home occupations that equals

[1:42:27] four hundred and four. Okay. So we have two hundred and forty that we would

[1:42:31] refer to typically as an Airbnb. Okay. So the timeshiers don't really figure

[1:42:38] into it. No. Okay. I just wondered where the number came up with the four

[1:42:43] for was to have 62 and 342.

[1:42:48] I have to say I am thrilled to hear the concerns from commercial interest

[1:42:54] about parking in the neighborhoods.

[1:42:57] I have to say that I don't think it's reasonable to support unmanaged

[1:43:03] transient lodgings with insufficient parking in areas that border high density neighborhoods.

[1:43:13] I live on Spring Street and it is gotten so much worse.

[1:43:19] The cars and they have to say they have so many of them still have the hang tags that I know we're working on that.

[1:43:27] But they are not full-time residents.

[1:43:32] I don't understand why they have gas passes to begin with.

[1:43:37] My understanding is, you know, that, yes, if you own property, you get permits, parking permits for your car.

[1:43:49] And you get gas passes, but they're seem to be like multiplying.

[1:43:53] They're seem to be a lot more out there.

[1:43:56] And so in my neighborhood, which, again, is a kind of a densely populated neighborhood, a budding commercial areas, we get cars with hang tags, and we get cars like from Texas with residents stickers on them, and they will park for like five days in a row.

[1:44:22] When I complained, the first time this happened, I was told that, okay, the police department

[1:44:32] would locate the owner and the car could be moved, which it was for one day, and then it

[1:44:39] came back for another five days.

[1:44:41] So, that's just one example.

[1:44:45] It happens, you know, I know on all the side streets,

[1:44:50] green street, down spring street, down street.

[1:44:54] So, what has not until now been a problem.

[1:45:00] Problems for some people who are, you know, having this business proposition has been a problem for the neighborhoods for a long time for years.

[1:45:11] So I'm glad that there is some support to do something about it from the commercial interests.

[1:45:19] Thank you.

[1:45:22] I'm Emily Holly, 1-1-9 Ruggles. I am a registered voter in the Newport.

[1:45:30] I'm not really affected by parking where I live. I live on Ruggles. I have a driveway that holds two cars.

[1:45:36] We only have one car between my husband and me.

[1:45:40] But I keep thinking about this lady on next door who's in her 80s.

[1:45:44] And she posted about how she lives on John Street.

[1:45:48] And she comes home with her groceries and there is nowhere to park, nowhere to park.

[1:45:55] And she said she, her property doesn't accommodate a driveway.

[1:45:59] I asked her, can you borrow a neighbor's driveway to unload your groceries?

[1:46:03] No, and apparently there's a short term rental on that street that's taking up a lot of the parking.

[1:46:08] So anyway, you know, a lot of people use new parties, their playground or their business opportunity.

[1:46:14] But we really have to think about the residents and when you guys think about these parking issues, please think about that eighty-three-year-old lady, thank you.

[1:46:24] Thank you.

[1:46:29] Hi.

[1:46:30] Linda Stevenson, Dickson Street.

[1:46:32] First I want to say through some great information here and I think Nick and Drew did an awesome job putting all this together.

[1:46:39] I'm really very pleased with the enforcement.

[1:46:44] It seems like it's definitely gone in a much better direction now.

[1:46:50] I am aware that the fine for people who get cited,

[1:46:56] I don't think it's enough, especially if there's multiple sightings.

[1:46:59] I know I've spoken with Representative Carson about this,

[1:47:02] but I've said this before, you know,

[1:47:05] overhearing people who own short-term rentals,

[1:47:07] who say I make $3,000 in a weekend. They find me a thousand bucks a summer that's part of

[1:47:12] doing business. So I would like to see if somebody gets cited multiple times that there's some

[1:47:18] increase in that fee of City Council could look at anyway working with their state reps to address

[1:47:23] that issue. I'm very much in favor of scaling the fees that was also discussed in this

[1:47:31] work sheet here, and doing away with the parking credits, I'm also in favor of that, and

[1:47:39] the guest-pass parking situation, it is an issue on my street. The house of the bottom

[1:47:46] of the street, that was just converted to a short-term rental, has a guest-pass that they use.

[1:47:53] For those people that think the short-term rental, our only issue is parking, it's not just

[1:47:57] parking. There's trash. There's safety issues. Five years ago we had a murder a block from my house

[1:48:05] in a short term rental. And it's less availability of housing options, which equals higher

[1:48:12] rents or higher listings on your houses.

[1:48:17] The property at the bottom of my street that was converted

[1:48:21] used to have a storefront no longer does. I thought that was another good point that the zoning

[1:48:26] officer made that we should perhaps stop allowing that to be converted, another one of

[1:48:32] block away has also been converted also used to be my dry cleaner that no longer has a

[1:48:38] business there and there's another short-term rental being has an application for the September

[1:48:46] zoning meeting which is across from the one at the bottom of my street. I would like to see

[1:48:56] is it's intent was to have businesses that are compatible with the residential district, and

[1:49:04] are myth and need of the neighborhood. Short-term rentals do neither of those things in limited

[1:49:10] business. So I would like some extra consideration given for that. I used to have great neighbors

[1:49:17] at that house that's been converted. It used to be a young couple. She was a nurse and new

[1:49:21] hospital he was in grad school at the time. My family went to his dissertation. He

[1:49:26] got a job at Newark. I mean it was great. We shared dinners together. We shared

[1:49:30] milestones together. He took in our trash. I took in theirs. We shoveled snow together.

[1:49:36] It just changes the fabric of the neighborhood because now I don't have those

[1:49:39] neighbors. Now I have guests. Hotel guests. So it's not just a parking

[1:49:44] issue. It is changing the fabric of the neighborhood.

[1:49:51] It's a decline in the quality

[1:49:52] life and I've heard that from a lot of my neighbors because they're like, you know,

[1:49:56] Joe doesn't live here anymore. Susie's gone, you know, it just changes.

[1:50:00] The way people feel about the neighborhood.

[1:50:05] The reduction of short-term rentals, I'm going to try and snap this up because it's late, points me to, is there a housing crisis in Newport?

[1:50:17] And that's what I keep hearing that there is.

[1:50:21] So, I think having some guardrails, some prohibitions is a good idea at this point.

[1:50:28] We prohibit a lot of other things in limited business, manufacturing.

[1:50:34] There's a number of businesses that are prohibited.

[1:50:36] I don't see why short term rentals can't be another one.

[1:50:40] Do you care about the quality of life for your constituents?

[1:50:43] If so, then I think banning short-term rentals and limited business should be pursued.

[1:50:49] But overall, I think we've moved in a really positive direction.

[1:50:52] I want to thank the team on that, everybody who's involved in that.

[1:50:55] I appreciate this workshop and city council addressing it as they do.

[1:51:00] But it really is a problem when you're destroying neighborhoods and you're doing a way

[1:51:06] with potential homes that families could live in year-round.

[1:51:09] that house of the bottom of the street used to be three bedrooms for a family and two bedrooms

[1:51:15] on the back apartment. It was year-round and they had a total of three cars, all which

[1:51:20] they had parking, a guest. Just last week, went to my neighbor and said, hey, we're renting

[1:51:26] across the street. We don't have enough parking passes. Can I borrow yours? Okay. So don't

[1:51:33] tell me everyone's not coming with a car. They're coming with cars. There may be other instances

[1:51:39] with or not, but for the majority of people, they are coming with the cars and there's no place to park them.

[1:51:44] Thanks for your time. Thank you.

[1:51:50] Hi, Linda Pereira. It's a good win straight and I just wanted to share some insights as a

[1:51:55] registered voter for 30 years and property owner as well in Newport for the entire time I've lived here.

[1:52:02] I have started to Airbnb my home for the last eight years to supplement my income to live in our

[1:52:10] house since the costs have drastically gone up here.

[1:52:14] A couple insights I'd like to share is most of my guests that come, our families.

[1:52:18] Most of them are international.

[1:52:21] My last guest was from Hong Kong.

[1:52:23] They came in with their children, their nanny.

[1:52:26] They were here for wedding.

[1:52:28] 90% of my rentals are families that come in for weddings.

[1:52:32] I'm kind of dubbed as the bridal cottage because the bride's family rents my home.

[1:52:37] and usually she and her parents and some of her siblings are there getting ready.

[1:52:42] Everyone is very respectful as my neighbors have shared. We all share

[1:52:47] responsibility of helping each other when needed. We are always compliant. We've always done

[1:52:53] everything to the letter of the law and I feel that you know what Shane had mentioned earlier.

[1:52:58] Perking is the real issue and I agree with Councillor Napolitano. We have to come up with

[1:53:03] solution for that, whether there is a trolley that circles longer than 9 p.m. that provides a real solution when people are out and about spending a lot of money in our town and supporting many of us that live here.

[1:53:17] I think that, you know, those are the issues. Another comment. I've lived here for 30 years. I never have a problem parking my car during high season ever.

[1:53:26] The problem is, when salve comes in, I cannot park on my street.

[1:53:31] There's nowhere to park, it's always a hassle, and I feel like if we're going to be held

[1:53:36] to the letter of the law, long-term rentals have to be held as well.

[1:53:40] It is total discrimination.

[1:53:42] I feel like we're constantly being targeted, it is completely unfair, and we are, we're

[1:53:47] all wasting a lot of time.

[1:53:49] I'm very appreciative and grateful that we're finally spending some time discussing this

[1:53:53] who are in matter because it's just been one big circle that never really has any real resolution.

[1:54:00] So I appreciate, you know, this being actually addressed properly.

[1:54:04] And I hope that at some point we can come together as a community and figure this out.

[1:54:10] And, you know, these are the realities.

[1:54:13] And I would say most of my guests, Uber to my home, most of them are flying in our street on Goodman Street.

[1:54:20] I can park in front of my house most days during high season, as soon as Sally comes in, forget about it. That's not going to happen.

[1:54:28] So I just wanted to share a couple of realistic insights as our voting resident in the third ward as well as, you know,

[1:54:36] having the experience of what it is to actually be a part of this community and be responsible.

[1:54:42] Thank you.

[1:54:43] Thank you.

[1:54:45] Anyone else want to?

[1:54:47] Hi.

[1:54:48] Hi, I'm Karen Pennelly, 39 Toro Street. I am a voter in Newport. I live in my building, and I have two Airbnb rentals when I, and there's three apartments in the building, the third one is my primary residence.

[1:55:00] When I purchased the building and there was commercial space on the first floor, it was never my intention to have year-round tenants. It was always my intention to have short-term rentals.

[1:55:11] And I renovated the building and turned the two into short-term rentals. I have on-site parking, so I have three bedrooms on-site parking. I will tell you, and I'm very happy to hear that you're going to look at some statistics.

[1:55:23] In the last probably month, I would say 20% of the time my spaces were not full.

[1:55:32] So people were coming in by plane, by train, I would have people check in and no cars

[1:55:39] out there.

[1:55:39] So it's not always that they're bringing cars and I think, and often they just leave the

[1:55:43] cars there.

[1:55:44] As I see them, they travel around, they walk around, they take the buses so they're not

[1:55:50] driving around looking for parking.

[1:55:53] I think it's important that we do take a study and look at

[1:55:57] people coming into the Airbnb and whether or not they are

[1:56:00] bringing cars and I think it enforcing the parking is very

[1:56:03] important.

[1:56:04] Now, the other thing about my building, I would want to make sure

[1:56:08] at some point, I'm in the business district.

[1:56:11] So at some point, I may want to turn my apartment

[1:56:14] into a short-term rental and move to another location,

[1:56:18] myself probably a private home in Newport. So I do not want to be restricted in my building

[1:56:25] to just keep these two and say the third one I can not turn into a short-term rental. My

[1:56:32] apartment I have one car three bedrooms. Now another statistic I want to throw out with the three

[1:56:37] bedrooms and the two rentals I can have up to six cars if people were renting on long-term basis

[1:56:44] because each bedroom could share it have two people living in the bedroom so there could be six

[1:56:50] cars. So I'm only required to do three parking spaces so take a look at that and these people

[1:56:55] would be driving around. So I think it's important and I'm really happy that you're looking at the parking

[1:57:01] situation but I think you look at looking at it thoroughly is very important and looking at all of these

[1:57:06] aspects. Love the idea of trolley also. The last thing that I will make a comment on at some point

[1:57:14] I do not, when I, if I do sell the building or at some point, I will sell the building.

[1:57:20] The first floor is commercial space.

[1:57:23] I do not want to be restricted and not be allowed to pass that along to whoever buys the building.

[1:57:30] I renovated the whole building with the intention of it being a business with three rentals, potentially, and the commercial space.

[1:57:38] So I would never want to lose that right by the same token I wouldn't want to, as mentioned,

[1:57:43] lose the right to turn my third apartment, my primary residence into a short term rental.

[1:57:50] So these are more comments than anything.

[1:57:52] Anybody has any questions?

[1:57:54] I'm happy to answer those.

[1:57:55] Mr. Chairman.

[1:57:56] Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chairman.

[1:57:57] Thank you very much.

[1:57:58] Your business is tremendous as we all know.

[1:58:00] Provence a mile for anybody who does not know, a wonderful location.

[1:58:04] And you, thank you, have worked so tremendously well with our friends and neighbors on Clark Street and beyond in the neighborhoods.

[1:58:15] I'm extremely happy for you and the success of your business.

[1:58:19] When I worked with the solicitors office and other offices on the resolution,

[1:58:25] it was never my intent nor would I support anything that since you are already established with respect to the commercial space.

[1:58:34] that would restrict either you using that or when you sell to an owner who would like to use

[1:58:41] the same from doing so, nor, as I understand, the proposed ordinances would there be a restriction

[1:58:48] as it relates to what you said with regard to turning your personal home, if you will, your personal

[1:58:53] living space into a short-term rental either now, when, hopefully, you're not selling the business any

[1:59:00] soon or or to someone who would like to purchase that right from you. So we can look at whether such is is

[1:59:11] guaranteed and the solicitor offered good advice that legal advice is best kept

[1:59:19] from those who have your own dealings with your own lawyers in the city council has has our solicitors

[1:59:27] But I would not support something which took away those two rights that you highlighted in any post ordnance change. Thank you again, Karen. Thank you.

[1:59:40] All right. Well, we're going to about to wrap up. So anyone else that wants to come up and speak to you and I'm pleased. Yes, sir.

[1:59:47] See your name at address please. Yeah, hello everybody. Can I move this by chance?

[1:59:52] Yes, I've already fallen down, but look

[2:00:00] Yeah, I'm plugged in. You just broke it. What about now? There you go.

[2:00:08] Sometimes this height just really gets in the way.

[2:00:11] Club everybody, Casey Horton here, four good ones for you don't want to just want to make a clear that I do not live here. I live in Boston. I love living in Boston. I also love visiting Newport. My place in Newport. I rent it out. I'm just a four bedroom house. I can only rent it out as a two bedroom, do the parking stuff.

[2:00:27] I didn't really want to touch on the parking stuff too much, but I just wanted to mention it's going to have been such a hot topic.

[2:00:33] Our little harmonious pocket of Goodwin Street where we got people that ran short-term and long-term, and we all got along somehow some way.

[2:00:41] I don't really think parking is much of an issue in our little pocket, a neighborhood.

[2:00:45] I typically always find street spaces. My guests come. They're not allowed to park on the street.

[2:00:52] They we have one on-site space. I have a lease for two other ones on the block.

[2:00:56] Nobody ever even brings three cars, but if they do, it's usually actually me when I use it with my friends and family members, where we have three cars and we use the spaces that I lease

[2:01:05] And no one on the parks in the street except for me because I have kind of the ownership password ever to. So either way, very happy to help out in the survey that we're all thinking to do.

[2:01:14] You can I can give people my information or whatever it is, but on some of our partners notes really quickly

[2:01:19] I just want to urge you to sort of pivot away from the proposed amendments. We're we're considering here and we focus on

[2:01:26] Zoning or a form that actually promotes housing production

[2:01:29] various places the resolution the housing chapter of new ports copy answer plan

[2:01:34] short-term rentals are sort of deemed as a you know

[2:01:37] significant factor in the lack of housing supply, but the data supporting that is really just

[2:01:42] murky at best. Even in the comprehensive plan itself, a user's phrase is like, it can be assumed

[2:01:49] when looking at census data and claiming that 19% of the new ports households are either seasonal homes,

[2:01:55] or short-term rentals. Why are we assuming? Just because that specific household didn't respond to the

[2:02:03] that it's likely being used as a short-term rental.

[2:02:06] What I'm getting as we don't really have the data,

[2:02:10] and by the way, the comprehensive plan actually admits that outright

[2:02:13] that we don't really have clear data on like what's going on here

[2:02:17] with a short-term rental situation.

[2:02:19] So why are we using this weak and subjective data

[2:02:21] to justify decisions that are as impactful to people

[2:02:24] as they're going to be?

[2:02:27] So suppose with that 19% that I just mentioned before,

[2:02:30] figure is actually correct, right? And a significant portion of that 19% is short-term

[2:02:35] rental housing that's really eating into our long-term housing stock, right? How are we so

[2:02:40] certain that there's been such an aggressive ramp up in people converting long-term housing

[2:02:45] to short-term housing? Over the past 15 years, right, that housing crisis really started

[2:02:51] getting talked about in 2018 here a little bit later, but how are we so certain that over

[2:02:55] kind of 15-year period, there's been so many conversions that have contributed to contributed

[2:03:01] extremely to newport specific housing crisis. Sure, there's Airbnb and VRBO listing data,

[2:03:09] but how can someone whose job it is because I know we probably do it and thank you guys for

[2:03:14] always policing and doing the things that you do to make sure everyone's doing the right things.

[2:03:18] But how can someone whose job it is to count up all the little pins on the Airbnb map,

[2:03:23] right year by year say 2021 to 2022 and see an increase in those pens, how can you determine

[2:03:32] that that there's specifically the result of a long term housing being taken offline in favor

[2:03:36] of sort of terminals. What seems a lot more likely in my opinion is that people who are

[2:03:41] already renting short term for years either informally or through a broker simply got a little bit

[2:03:46] more text savvy. It's happened to a lot of us here because platforms simply make it easier.

[2:03:51] So, if you're pointing to the apps and saying, and you're reading the data and saying,

[2:03:54] well, there's just such an aggressive uptick in short-term rentals, and we've got to figure

[2:03:58] out something to do here to stop this, it's like, I don't think, I think it's very misleading

[2:04:03] data to actually reference.

[2:04:06] So, but my whole proposal here is rather than spending time at energy on changes rooted

[2:04:10] in such thin, factual basis, changes that the impact of which we're proposing here, the impact

[2:04:16] of which would actually be extremely difficult to quantify, given how little data exists

[2:04:20] today to help us formulate a meaningful baseline. Right? Let's focus on something we know

[2:04:26] without a doubt could alleviate the housing crisis and that is building more housing.

[2:04:32] It's not really a secret. A lot of the large high profile walkable development sites in the

[2:04:37] general business and waterfront business have gone hotel. Right in the hand, it's hotel

[2:04:43] up in 2020. The beautiful gardener house in 2023. Bellevue under construction set to open

[2:04:48] 2.27, weights, width, partial, got to prove.

[2:04:50] They're in a little residential component there,

[2:04:52] which I commend the city for making happen.

[2:04:55] But that will open eventually.

[2:04:56] I want to start its construction.

[2:04:58] Why is that?

[2:04:59] Why are...

[2:05:00] Please all go and go tell. Well, one could say it's because it tells the highest and best to use. Probably right, but in my opinion, there's a lot more to the story when you dig in.

[2:05:10] So in the general business zoning district, hotels at reasonable scale and intensity for references one room or 400 land square feet pretty dense pretty intense use which is great.

[2:05:22] They're permitted as of right, which for anyone in this room who doesn't know the term as of right, it just means the easiest pathway to project approvals.

[2:05:28] No discretionary board findings, relatively administrative and nature, all that's needed is a site plan review and the developer can pull a construction permit and start digging.

[2:05:39] Multi-family by contrast is not permitted as of right anywhere in the general business or water permit.

[2:05:46] The only approval path is actually via special use from a process which on top of site plan review which we already mentioned as a right projects need to deal with.

[2:05:56] On top of that it requires a far more lengthy and stringent municipal review, often involving additional consultant studies, costly redesigns, many times dictated by the municipality and different boards, and approval conditions that can actually render a project pretty unfeasible.

[2:06:13] got in many places throughout the Northeast, this special permit processes is used. It's very common.

[2:06:19] Developers still a lot of times choose to persevere through these promises. These processes,

[2:06:26] that's not really the case here in Newport because regardless of the building envelope,

[2:06:30] the disowning COZO dimensional standards would otherwise allow. There's a catch-all cap on multi-family

[2:06:36] density. Developers can only be a group or one unit for 1500 square feet of land in the general

[2:06:42] business. That is such a load density that is mere existence in the code. Access is structural

[2:06:48] deterrent for multifamily development. For reference, on a one acre site in the general

[2:06:52] business, the code's own height and coverage limits would probably let you construct the

[2:06:56] code for every 100. Thanks, Casey. We got you, you're going on so fast, I don't think anyone

[2:07:02] can even comprehend what you did for a second. But I appreciate it again. We did get your letter

[2:07:09] everything that you're saying. So, okay. But I mostly want to just

[2:07:13] interview my fellow friends who, you know, don't have the privilege of being a developer

[2:07:17] like me and can kind of see this stuff. No, I don't know. So, absolutely. No, and

[2:07:22] there was a lot of great information on that. For me, as of right, multi-family with

[2:07:27] density, everybody's doing it. Look up chapter 40B, Massachusetts. They just

[2:07:32] pass the statewide thing. It's really spurring housing growth. That's how you

[2:07:35] Let's say you alleviate rents, guys.

[2:07:38] Let's say you help people out in a small time.

[2:07:41] Yes, I just want to mention a statement

[2:07:44] that I mentioned on the February meeting.

[2:07:48] Newport is 10 square miles, 7 land mass, 300 water.

[2:07:56] We're built out.

[2:07:57] We are truly built out when you think about it.

[2:08:02] You know, they talk about all these other cities and towns that don't have what we have and we have a very large population of people in need.

[2:08:15] I just, you know, I honestly feel new port is built out.

[2:08:21] Our zoning codes were taken water on this just a lot of issues here.

[2:08:29] And I don't see building in the future for new point.

[2:08:35] Yeah, but I totally understand where you're coming from, but the one thing that I don't

[2:08:38] understand there is we are sort of allowing these, you know, decently done so tells

[2:08:42] to be built.

[2:08:44] So if that's the case, I would say we should amend the zoning code to really pull back and

[2:08:48] make it a lot more challenging for all development to be done, because it's still happening,

[2:08:54] like it's, it's just going to hotel now.

[2:08:55] There's only two spaces in all of Newport that could build a hotel now.

[2:09:02] One is where the highlight was, and the other is the Naval Hospital.

[2:09:07] That's it, Pheneet.

[2:09:09] Oh, I mean, there's no other place.

[2:09:10] I was kind of referring to the past 10 or so years,

[2:09:13] which we know those hotels have been built in our name.

[2:09:15] Absolutely, and they've been at it for about 10 years.

[2:09:19] Paying their attorneys and going to planning and zone.

[2:09:22] Yeah, of course.

[2:09:24] So, I mean,

[2:09:24] That's what we're seeing. I agree. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

[2:09:32] Folks, thank you so much for coming tonight, and you know there's a lot of information and we'll

[2:09:37] I'm sure there'll be more discussions as we move forward. So thank you very much.

[2:09:42] Not all the way up. That's a lot of folks. You don't cause a key. I'll figure it out.

Newport City Council Workshop Short Term Rentals- Follow up from March 11, 2026 Council Meeting

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