Nantucket Voters Back Unrestricted Short-Term Rentals

After years of courtroom drama and community division, Nantucket voters have given short-term rentals the green light — no strings attached.

At a packed Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, residents voted 1,045 to 421 to adopt Article 1, a citizen petition classifying short-term rentals as a principal use under local zoning, the Inquirer and Mirror reported. The measure, sponsored by charter fishing captain Brian Borgeson, effectively legalizes rentals of any length in all residential districts.

The move comes after a state Land Court ruling earlier this year that cast doubt on the legality of owner-absent short-term rentals under 31 days.

The vote marks a major win for property owners and the island’s tourism economy and a setback for neighborhood activists who spent years pressing for tighter limits.

A competing proposal backed by the Select Board and Planning Board chair Dave Iverson, which would have treated short-term rentals as an accessory use with caps on rental nights and turnovers, was shelved after the first article’s passage.

“The community overwhelmingly spoke,” Iverson said after the vote, acknowledging the defeat of Article 2. Borgeson, meanwhile, called the result “for the people of Nantucket.”

The meeting drew more than 1,400 voters — one of the largest turnouts in island history — filling the high school auditorium and overflow gym. The measure passed swiftly, capping years of legal wrangling that often pitted full-time residents against seasonal landlords and investors.

Supporters argued that rentals are vital to sustaining Nantucket’s visitor-driven economy and to helping locals cover high living costs. Opponents warned that unrestricted rentals would invite off-island investors to turn homes into “mini hotels,” accelerating the island’s affordability crisis and eroding community character.

For now, the zoning language provides legal certainty for island homeowners and hosts, though it leaves open the possibility of future regulation through general bylaws.

Whether voters have truly put the issue to rest remains to be seen, but as Borgeson put it Tuesday night, “We don’t have to argue about this again.”

— Holden Walter-Warner