Meredith Neck residents ask zoning board to enforce short-term rental regulation

Residents of Black Cove accuse the town of ducking its responsibilities to enforce zoning ordinance

 At the end of 2021, Meredith voters passed a new zoning ordinance that limits short-term rentals like Airbnbs to single-family dwellings with proportionate parking and sewer infrastructure for the rental occupancy. It also caps the number of rental days at 120 and requires that short-term renting be an accessory, rather than the primary, use of the home. The Zoning Board of Adjustment is empowered to allow exceptions in cases where, among other reasons, “the use will not be detrimental to the character or enjoyment of the neighborhood.” 

Residents of Meredith Neck’s Black Cove have accused the town of ducking its responsibilities to enforce that ordinance by improperly grandfathering a short-term rental property on Cattle Landing Road. In parallel proceedings, Black Cove residents have successfully intervened in a superior court case where the town settled with the Cattle Landing homeowners and also have petitioned the ZBA for relief. The court case awaits further action from the judge, but the ZBA will take up the matter at a meeting Thursday, Nov. 9.

If the town’s settlement with the Airbnb owners is allowed by the court and the ZBA to stand, abutters worry it could be used as a precedent for the town not to enforce the rules voters put in place.

In April, the town of Meredith filed a superior court complaint against Douglas and Allison Keach, saying they had received complaints about regular, rowdy, late-into-the-morning parties hosted by guests at the Keaches’ short-term rental on Lake Winnipesaukee. Despite letters from the town, according to its complaint, the Keaches neither obtained an exemption from the ZBA nor provided proof that, as they asserted, their property was a legal, nonconforming short-term rental. The town asked for a permanent injunction.

At a June 12 hearing that the Keaches did not attend, according to court records, the town told the court it had been in contact with the owners and was expecting proof of their legal nonconformity, which would end the case without a need for a court order. A settlement was filed at the end of June stating the town had received evidence qualifying the property for grandfathered use and that the Keaches could continue to operate their short-term rental for up to 87 nights per year.

Over the summer, a group of abutters led by Frank Marino, a former zoning board member who had filed initial complaints with the town about the property, filed motions with the court to intervene. A hearing was held in Belknap Superior Court on Sept. 28.

Because the town had settled when it had a legal upper hand and because it was fighting its residents’ attempt to be involved in the case, Marino and his neighbors accused the town of having no interest in enforcing the ordinance approved by voters.

“The town deliberately misled Mr. Marino into thinking it was protecting his and his neighbors’ rights when instead they were off negotiating a settlement without soliciting any input from them,” Rachel Hampe, Marino’s attorney, told the court.

Instead, filings and legal arguments made by Marino and his lawyers allege, the town tried to use the court to “bless” a grandfathering decision that the abutters believe has no justification.

“The town is bending over backwards trying to prevent its flawed policy decision from seeing the light of day, from public scrutiny and from the purview of this court,” Hampe argued.

The town rejects that characterization. The town received the information from the Keaches that it had gone to court lacking, Joseph Driscoll, an attorney for the town, told the court. The case was rightfully closed, and the attempt to intervene came too late.

“This is a case where the town chose to apply the law that it has applied to everyone,” he said. Allowing the neighbors to intervene after the fact here “would then be stripping the town of its ability to resolve any case.”

Belknap Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Leonard granted the abutters’ motions to intervene and cited some credibility to their accusation that the town had pursued court action disingenuously.

“I’m being very frank, I do have very — I have concerns with the way that this was done,” Leonard said. “The court is concerned that the court was improperly used to basically put a seal of approval on something that the court understood was a full agreement amongst the parties.”

The case is currently pending further action by the court. 

Meanwhile, Marino sought another path to relief. After the town settled, he filed an administrative appeal to be considered by the zoning board, challenging the town’s ability to grandfather a property without ZBA input or approval and asserting the property is not eligible for grandfathering.

The ZBA first weighed the appeal on Sept. 14, two weeks before the court hearing about the interventions.

The property couldn’t be grandfathered, Hampe said at that meeting, because even though the rental existed before the ordinance, it existed illegally in the shoreline district.

“At the time the short-term rental began it was illegal” based on the zoning at the time, Hampe said, according to the minutes. “An illegal use cannot be grandfathered.” Furthermore, because the property is a nuisance to its neighbors, she said, it is “exactly the kind of thing that, by enacting an amendment, you’re trying to control.”

ZBA members expressed some agreement with those arguments, but they were unsure of whether or how they could act on the issue with the matter still in court, and with the settlement approved by a judge. 

They tabled the issue at that meeting, and a subsequent one on Oct. 12. 

Marino’s appeal of the town’s decision to settle is first on the agenda at the Nov. 9 ZBA meeting.

In a tourism-heavy section of a tourism-rich state, Lakes Region towns have grappled with whether and how strictly they should regulate short-term rentals. Officials describe obligations to balance property owners rights as well as the reliance of local tourism on short-term rentals with residents’ concerns about the noise and character of their neighborhoods and the availability of housing stock to long-term renters or aspiring homeowners. Even places that have enacted more restrictive rules struggle without the resources to enforce them, as they need court rulings to actually collect fines from persistent violators. 

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