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(a)
Short-term residential rentals, which is defined as residential rental tenancies of less than 30 days duration, occurs in many residential areas of the town. Jamestown recognizes the growing trend by the homeowning public to provide accommodations in their homes to travelers. The provision of such type of housing accommodations can be beneficial under certain circumstances and, if properly regulated, provide a means of assisting property owners to keep their properties in good order and repair which, in turn, assists in stabilizing home ownership, maintaining property values, and strengthening the economy of Jamestown. This trend to engage in short-term rentals has also been expanded to include absentee owner-investors.
(b)
Simultaneously, Jamestown is mindful of the potential negative impacts short-term rental activity may have on well-established residential neighborhoods. The seasonal (primarily summer) rental market has been transformed into short-term rentals, often with tenancies of less than one week in duration, conducted via increasingly anonymous means through the internet. This transformation is profound in its potential to convert every home on the island into a commercial hotel-like activity without the benefit of community review or appropriate regulation. This trend has also fostered commercial investment to purchase previously single family occupied homes and transformed them into hotel-like rentals in many residential neighborhoods. Unregulated short-term rental activity obliterates the distinctions between residential and commercial uses and zoning districts. It also undermines the town's comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, life and safety codes and the safeguards therein that enable homeowners and residents to know and to predict what land uses are allowed in their neighborhoods and in the dwelling next door.
(c)
The impact of short-term rentals on long-term rentals and affordable rentals has been negative and significant by replacing such long-term and affordable rentals with more lucrative short-term rental opportunities. Lack of availability of long-term and affordable rentals has forced out the younger generation of town residents to other communities, reducing economic diversity and community volunteers. This resident displacement will continue and may increase if not regulated.
(d)
Without appropriate controls on the manner, method, location, and operation of short-term rentals, residential neighborhoods stand to be harmed by undue commercialization and disruption. The primary and overarching purpose of a residential neighborhood is first and foremost a residential community, where people live, not a place of transient occupancy or commercial activity. The regulation of short-term rentals, the introduction of requirements, safeguards, and community review, will improve and moderate this land use transformation. Regulation of this activity will serve to help maintain the residential character of neighborhoods.
(e)
The regulations set forth hereinafter strike an appropriate balance by encouraging and strengthening opportunities for home ownership by providing a means of assisting owners of homes in the upkeep of their property, and significantly, by maintaining the residential character of neighborhoods by requiring that short-term rentals, as defined by this article, be operated and located in such a manner as to curb the potential of residential neighborhoods becoming predominantly places for commercial hotel-like rentals and the associated negative externalities.
(f)
The Constitution of the State of Rhode Island, article XIII, section 2, in relevant part, grants to the Town of Jamestown the authority to enact and amend local laws relating to its property, affairs, and government if such local laws are consistent with the Constitution and laws enacted by the general assembly. This delegation of power includes the police power to enact reasonable legislation to regulate and to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
(g)
The Town of Jamestown finds that, by application of the regulatory framework contained herein, the short-term rental of dwelling units can have a positive effect on the health, safety, and welfare of the community by providing a flexible housing stock that allows travelers safe accommodations while contributing to the local economy and providing homeowners an opportunity to hold property in difficult economic circumstances or as an investment while balancing these regulations to also protect the integrity of the residential neighborhood from commercialization.
(Ord. of 8-30-2022, § 1(Exh. A); Ord. of 8-7-2023)