By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — The Town of Naples may move forward with proposing an amendment to the Business Ordinance to define short-term rentals as one type of business.

It seems that short-term rentals fell through the cracks when it comes to requiring owners to register their business with the town.

Naples Town Manager John Hawley brought up the issue during the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting last Wednesday.

“As of the end of December, there are 28 short-term rental properties listed in Naples,” Hawley said.

Someone asked how the town discovered the number of short-term rentals in town.

“We are using a pilot program through Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG) that does a search engine of all the sites where these are advertised,” Hawley said.

“Is it called Angela Lansbury,” Selectman Kevin Rogers joked.

At this moment in time, “the Business License Ordinance states that a business shall not engage in any of the following activities unless they have a valid license. Under the lodging section, we list bed and breakfasts and innkeepers. Because our ordinance doesn’t specifically define a business other than those specifically listed as lodging, it has been questioned whether or not short-term rentals are considered businesses in regard to this ordinance,” he said. 

There have been concerns about fairness to other businesses.

“It has been stated that these rentals do directly compete with lodging establishments that we currently require licenses,” Hawley said.

“We need to know if the ordinance should be amended to reflect these short-term rentals as businesses that requires licenses,” he said. “Should we add short-term rentals?”

Chairman Jim Grattelo, who joined via Zoom asked if the State of Maine is working on a law to help town deal with short-term rentals.

“We have to do something. God forbid, if one of these places doesn’t get inspected and someone dies in a fire because it didn’t have a second-floor egress. It is on our watch,” he said.

“Requiring them to pay $10 for business license is not unreasonable,” Grattelo said.

Vice chair Ted Shane said, “After they get the license, the Code Enforcement Officer goes and inspects these.”

Nothing changes unless the ordinance is amended, Hawley said.

“It has to be defined as business to fall under the requirement,” he said.

The board did not vote on the matter, and no final decision was made.