Orleans voters to weigh in on short-term rental regs at special town meeting

ORLEANS — It will be a busy special town meeting for Orleans voters when they take up fertilizers, short-term rentals and millions in expenditures Monday  at 6 p.m. at the Nauset Middle School Gym.

Article 18 would regulate short-term rentals in town prohibiting subletting, requiring they be registered, limiting occupants to two per bedroom, requiring trash removal and limiting parking to the premises. There are 655 short-term rentals in Orleans.

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"This is a registration bylaw just to get a handle on 655 short-term rental units. This gives us the ability to have people apply for and get a license for the property. It gets us contact information for each property which we currently don't have," Town Manager John Kelly said. "The fee will be used to offset the cost.

"We followed what is currently allowed under Title 5 rules (to set the bedroom limits)," Kelly said. "We didn't create anything other than basic standards. Right now they're all on septic systems."

Should fertilizers be banned in Orleans?

Article 32 would prohibit the application of fertilizer in town except for agriculture and certified organic fertilizer for the growing of fruits and vegetables by residents. Special legislation approval will also be required.

"The state has preempted the field to prohibit the application of fertilizer and the bylaw does not allow the town to do so so we need special legislation to do that to protect or salt water and fresh water," Kelly said. "The town meeting vote is required as a first step."

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Kelly noted the town carved out protections for agriculture and the suggested rules have no enforcement mechanism.

"There will be a public education requirement," Kelly said. "But it is largely voluntary compliance. The goal is to educate the voters."

Money sought for police, fire contract

Articles 2 and 3 would pay for funding police and firefighters contracts. The town will also hold a special election on Dec. 6, to consider two override articles, the first to assess $165,000  to cover the new contract with the Orleans Police Federation  and the second to approve $304,000 for the new contract with the Orleans Permanent Firefighters Association .

Kelly said that moneywould cover the next three years of the contract.

"This is the first time we've had a general override to fund a union agreement," Kelly said. "Given the outlook for attracting and retaining officers, this is a competitive market here on Cape Cod we did a compensation survey and realized we were low in some areas."

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Kelly said the impact during the first year for both contracts will be about $91,000 added to the tax rate which will raise taxes about one third of 1%.

Article 7 asks voters to transfer $1.4 million from free cash to upgrade the heating and ventilation system at the Orleans Elementary School to improve air quality in the 1988 building.

Preparing to hire new town manager

Article 8 would help fund the $799,355 replacement of the Rock Harbor fuel tanks. The town is expecting a $599,516 grant.  If the grant is received the town would seek approval to raise the additional $170,000 needed at the May 2023 town meeting.

Under Article 10, voters will asked to spend $30,000 to hire a consultant to help search for a new town manager. Kelly is retiring next year.

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Article 11 appropriates $15,000 for an economic study of Rock and  Nauset harbors which will hopefully be used to obtain economic development grants in the future.

Orleans plans to implement non-resident parking fees at Rock Harbor and Article 14 would fund that project with $32,500. The daily non-resident fee would be $15. The seasonal fee for crew members would be $30. Article 16 would set aside $38,000 from the Waterways Improvement and Maintenance Fund to design the new bulkhead at Rock Harbor.

Voters can also approve a $2.2 million upgrade of the water treatment plant lagoon.

There are also many minor modifications to the town charter.

Contact Rich Eldred at reldred@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reldredCodder.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Orleans voters to weigh in on short-term rental regulations