Welcome to the District Five Insider, a newsletter about the big decisions making their way through the City Council, what they mean for District Five, and how you can get involved. Follow to subscribe, and receive this newsletter in your mailbox.

Happy summer, D-Fivers! The hot weather is calling. If water recreation is in your vacation plans, please be aware that a new Maine law this year requires anyone born on or after January 1, 1999, to complete a boater safety and education course to legally operate a motorboat or jet ski on inland waters. You must be 12 or older to operate a motorboat, and 16 or older to operate a jet ski. For your safety, always wear a life jacket when on the water, no matter your age or fitness level! Stay safe and enjoy your precious time with family and friends.

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

One Big Thing:

Short Term Rental Regulations

Short-Term Rental (STR) regulation reform emerged as one of the top City Council goals for this year, and the Housing and Economic Development Committee (HEDC) took this up as a top priority. Over the last few months, I’ve met with stakeholders on all sides of this issue to arrive at a slate of changes to our Short-Term Rental ordinance that landed on last night’s Council agenda for a first reading.

The majority of these changes are poised for passage by the Council (Order 28). A smaller set of changes to the registration requirements for STRs can’t be passed outright by the Council because they overlap with changes made by citizen referendum within the last 5 years. Those changes must instead be placed on the November ballot as a Council sponsored referendum (Order 23). Public comment and a Council vote will happen at the 4:00 PM meeting on August 19th.

What it means

The proposed changes protect long-term rental availability, preserve the residential character of multi-unit buildings, and strengthen enforcement by leveraging the legal precedent set by other communities in requiring booking services to verify registration with the City before charging for services. Tenant operators are being phased out to curtail rental arbitrage, and Peaks Island will have new limits on Non-Owner Occupied (NOO) units.

Property owners can still rent their primary residence as an STR, provided they register with the City and prove owner-occupancy. All lawfully registered units will be exempted from the new limits, which go into effect in September of 2025.

Newly constructed Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) will also be exempt from the cap on NOO units for five years. This is intended to help people recoup the cost of building what will become future long-term housing.

Why it matters

We face a severe housing affordability crisis in Portland, with a 2.2 percent vacancy rate. More than half of residents are rent-burdened and live under the constant threat of no-cause eviction. Our current STR regulations do a good job of protecting home ownership (it’s illegal to turn a single family home into an STR on the mainland), but no such protections exist for renters (it’s perfectly legal to buy an apartment building and take more than half of those units off the long-term rental market). These new protections set the number of NOO licenses as a percentage of our long-term rental stock, putting the needs of tenants first. In District 5, where we have larger lots, building an ADU in anticipation of housing an aging parent or college student who can’t afford their own apartment may be made a more attainable by the option to bypass the wait list and register it as a NOO short term rental for 5 years.

Two More Quick Hits:

Woodford Street Housing Funding Approved

The Council voted last night to approve public funding for a low-income housing development on Woodfords Street. Phase I of the project includes 25 units for households earning up to 50% of the area median income (AMI) and 16 units up to 60% of AMI. Ten percent of the units would be set aside for people who have been experiencing homelessness. Phase II includes 43 one-bedroom apartments for seniors, affordable to 17 households earning at or below 60% AMI and 26 units at or below 50% AMI. Six units will be set aside for people who have been experiencing homelessness. While I didn’t support amendments to increase the public subsidy of this project, I didn’t feel the changes warranted a vote against the project as a whole.

Tapping the Breaks on the East Bayside PHA Development

Portland Housing Development Corporation (PHDC) is proposing to demolish four buildings containing 40 units of public housing located on the parcel of land bound by Cumberland Avenue, Oxford Street, Mayo Street, and Boyd Street (COMB Block) to create a six-story building of 50 mixed-income units with 45 affordable rental units for low income households and 5 market rate units at 70 East Oxford Street in East Bayside. The project would set aside 20% of units for Persons Experiencing Homelessness or persons who have disabilities, are victims of domestic violence, or have other special housing needs. The building would offer five (5) studio units, fifteen (15) one-bedroom units, sixteen (16) two-bedroom units, and nineteen (19) three-bedroom units.

Seven votes were required last night to waive the second reading on the financing package for this project. With the compressed summer City Council meeting schedule, several outstanding questions about the financing unanswered, and two HED Committee members absent, I felt that one reading on this was inadequate on a project that will transition some of Portland’s oldest public housing stock to a non-profit development model. A second reading, public hearing and vote will take place August 19th meeting.

Pet of the Week!

The D5 Pet of the Week is Thor!

Each week we feature a District 5 pet who brightens our day. Thor is a hard working corgi with a HUGE personality who lives in Deering Center. He thinks bikes are for herding, but we can’t be too upset with him over it because he never stops smiling.

ksykes@portlandmaine.gov 207-558-5764

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