— About
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket’s Economy
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket’s Economy is a strong, committed coalition of island businesses, residents, organizations, and professional groups that has mobilized to protect Nantucket’s economy and rental traditions. The Alliance is against imposing stringent regulations on short-term rentals.
— Latest News
Boston Globe: On Nantucket, another round in long-running debate over short-term rentals
A measure going before the Town Meeting this weekend would sharply restrict short-term rentals on the housing-starved island, and some worry it will force them to sell their family homes.
By the numbers…
Vote No on Article 60
It severely restricts short-term rentals which will result in a $6.8 million annual revenue loss to the Town of Nantucket
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket’s Economy employed the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute to update their 2021 in-depth study to evaluate the impacts of short-term rental restrictions on the island’s visitation, home prices and rents, and the economy with changes to visitation.
UMDI supplemental research conducted in 2023 highlights that Article 60 will severely impact Nantucket’s economy. Here are some preliminary findings:
Article 60 allows short-term rentals by owner-occupied properties in residential zones of Nantucket if they are occupied for at least 6 months. At current use, there are approximately only 114 short-term rentals that qualify, which is a tiny fraction of the 2,789 short-term rental units that are currently available.
Now for non-owner-occupied properties in residential zones, Article 60 would permit short-term rentals under the following circumstances: (1) the primary dwelling and secondary dwelling, if applicable, are each used for long-term residential use more than short-term rental use; and (2) the Short-Term Rental is registered with the Town in accordance with General Bylaw § 123.
Article 60 would end up restricting 78 percent of the current non-owner-occupied short-term rentals to continue providing lodging to visitors to Nantucket. If passed, the permitted allowances in Article 60 make it hard for seasonal property owners to qualify for short term rentals.
Think about this – currently Nantucket receives $7 million annually from short- term rental revenue, which is 10 percent of the town’s annual budget. Between current resident and non-resident properties, there are 9100 rooms to offer Nantucket visitors.
Now if Article 60 passes, this is what the summer of 2023 could experience – with only 5 percent of short-term rentals available, the current 9100 short-term rental rooms available would be drastically reduced to 455. That would also cause a serious revenue reduction to the town of $6.8 million.
And with only 840 traditional lodging rooms available to visitors, if you add this to the 455 short-term rooms created by Article 60, there will only be 1295 rooms for visitors for the 2023 season. The result would be devastating to the tourism industry and Nantucket’s economy.
How YOU Can Help
We are for creating more affordable housing.
ACK-Now was founded and is led by primarily wealthy off-island property owners deploying a group of local activists in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Nantucket Town Meeting, at which they cannot vote.
The organization is advocating for severe short-term rental restrictions on Nantucket property owners, under the guise of protecting affordable housing stock. The ACK-Now citizen warrant article proposes to reduce the short-term rental days to 45 days for non-resident homeowners and 90 days for homeowners who are full-time residents of Nantucket. There will also be a seven-day minimum stay for guests, with a limit of two people per bedroom, and one car per household, regardless of the property size.
