Two warrant articles drafted by the Planning Board will be voted on at Town Meeting on May 22, after the Williamstown Select Board voted to add them to the Town Meeting warrant on Monday. One measure aims to regulate short-term rentals in the Town, while the other would regulate the installation of geothermal heating wells. The Select Board requested revisions to the first measure and sent both back to the Planning Board to be finalized before being placed on the Town Meeting warrant.
All laws in the Town are made at Town Meeting, during which registered voters vote on warrant articles, which are often drafted by elected bodies.
The Planning Board’s first proposal prohibits homes from being used as short-term rentals for more than 90 days per year. It is part of a broader effort to increase access to affordable housing in Town, according to Planning Board Member Kenneth Kuttner, a professor of economics at the College.
“Williamstown, like many towns in the Berkshires, has a chronic shortage of housing,” Kuttner said. “Housing prices are uncomfortably high and out of reach for a lot of people.”
Kuttner said that some of the Town’s 168 residences registered as short-term rentals are owned by outside investors and rented out full-time. “Even if a fraction of those were full houses being Airbnb’ed full-time, then that would be a … concerning dent in the housing supply,” he said.
“One of the reasons that [housing] is expensive is there’s a lot of demand, and supply is not as high as we would like,” Kuttner said. “Part of that is that the supply is being reduced … from people buying houses, and then Airbnb’ing them full time.”
The proposed bylaw would exempt accessory dwelling units — detached living spaces on existing lots — as well as spare rooms in owner-occupied homes.
“There’s meant to be minimal impact on the people who are not doing this as a profession,” Kuttner explained at the meeting.
Select Board members said that they agreed with the substance of the proposed bylaw, but asked the Planning Board to clarify an ambiguity that would potentially allow investment rental properties to avoid regulation. The Select Board placed the bylaw on the warrant with the expectation of further revision and public comment in advance of Town Meeting.
Kuttner said that the push to regulate short-term rentals has been ongoing for several years. In 2023, as the Planning Board drafted a warrant article to allow the construction of cottage court developments, residents raised concerns that the new housing would be used as short-term rentals rather than housing for residents. The warrant article, which was approved at Town Meeting in May 2024, included language limiting short-term rentals of these units to 90 days per calendar year. Kuttner described the current proposal as a natural extension of this rule.
The Planning Board’s second proposal would require the Department of Public Works to approve any new installations of geothermal heat pump systems that use propylene glycol or other chemical heat transfer agents.
The regulation seeks to avoid contamination of the aquifer that lies beneath the Town and supplies its water.
Kuttner said that the aquifer wasn’t immediately at risk of chemical contamination. “Because it is such an incredible resource, we thought, ‘Well, okay, we should be very cautious about doing whatever we can to protect that from any kind of contamination,’” he said.
Kuttner also noted that the bylaw will likely have minimal impact because geothermal heating systems can be relatively expensive, and said that he expects most applicants to be commercial rather than residential.
“This would probably really only apply to … somebody building a big institutional building, like the College,” he said.
Following final revisions, Town voters will decide whether to approve the two proposals at Town Meeting on May 22.
