The West Tisbury select board is considering putting the final touches on new short-term rental regulations passed at town meeting earlier this year. 

Residents passed a bylaw in April, setting a minimum rental period and other parameters on the vacation rentals. Afterward the town’s short-term rental committee set out to promulgate draft regulations and a recommended fee schedule for the new rules. 

On Wednesday, the committee presented detailed regulations to the board. According to the drafted regulations, property owners can only designate one of their properties as a short-term rental and they must live in that property at least 30 days a year. There is a two-night minimum for rentals and the town must inspect each property before proper registration. Other requirements include a “duty to respond” and “duty to update contact information” with the town.  

The proposed fee schedule includes an administrative fee of $400, which would cover a two-year registration, inspections and other administrative expenses.  

“We designed our fee schedule around what we estimated the costs for running [and] managing the program would be and taking into account that these short term rental operators are also paying taxes,” short-term rental committee chair Bea Phear said at the meeting. 

West Tisbury is the first town to create a bylaw addressing the controversial rentals. 

The bylaw was enacted to protect the town’s housing stock while still encouraging the Island’s history of a booming tourist market, Ms. Phear said at the annual town meeting.

The select board elected to postpone voting in the regulations in hopes that the public reads over the drafted proposal and sends letters of input.

“It’d be fair to give the people an opportunity, a week, maybe two, to let them at least read it and get back to us if they want to with suggestions,” select board member Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter said.