a report from Councillor Craig Kelley, Chair of the Public Safety Committee, for a public hearing held on June 13, 2018 to was to receive an update on the Short-Term Rental Ordinance #1397

ATTACHMENTA PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE COMMITTEE MEETING ~ AGENDA ~ 4:00 PM Wednesday, June 13, 2018 Ackermann Room CALL OF THE MEETING The Public Safety Committee will conduct a public hearing to receive an update on the Short-Term Rental Ordinance. INTRODUCTION By Councillor Kelley REVIEW Data Scraper Website DISCUSSION Councillor Kelley Committee members City Staff PUBLIC COMMENT ADJOURNMENT cambridgema gov City of Cambridge Last Updated: 6/13/2018 9:29 AM

Lopez, Donna AMTACHMENTB From: Lauren K. Gibbs <[email removed]> Tuesday, June 12, 2018 11:10 AM Sent: To: Lopez, Donna; City Council Subject: Follow Through on STR Policy To the Cambridge City Council, and D Lopez to put my remarks on record at this hearing, I want the Cambridge City Council Short Term Rental Policy upheld. Please follow through and make sure these AirB&B's comply with your regulations! Lauren Gibbs 3 Newport Road #1 Cambridge MA 02140 [email removed] [phone removed]

Lopez, Donna ATTACHMENTC From: [email removed] Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2018 11:19 AM To: Lopez, Donna Cc: Kelley, Craig; City Council; DePasquale, Louie; [email removed] Subject: short term rentals Dear Ms. Lopez, Please add this comment to the record of the meeting for June 13, 4:00 pm, concerning short-term rentals in Cambridge, w which unfortunately I won't be able to attend. Thank you so much! 1 very much appreciate the Council's interest in regulating short-term rentals in our city. While I would support the right of owner-residents to rent their own homes when they were not in residence, a few times a year, and to rent spare bedrooms in their homes while they were there, I do not support the idea of non-resident owners doing so, even occasionally. I do not support the idea of peopie taking empty apartments in order to rent them out again as hotel rooms, either. As to the right of tenants to rent out their own residences when they do not need them, I feel that this practice should be tightly regulated either by the City or by each neighborhood, while giving veto power to landiords. It may well be OK to allow tenants to rent out their homes during their vacations, up to three or four weeks per year, subject to their landiords' agreement. Wayne Barron and i have two rental apartments downstairs from us. We explicitly forbid subletting without our approval, which we have given on several occasions, for example when tenants were going away on sabbatical and they knew the proposed subtenants personally. One condition of such arrangements has always been that the subtenant would never pay more than the tenant was paying us. This matters to us because we keep our rents on the low side, and while we hope our tenants appreciate this, we wouldn't want them taking unfair advantage of it. But we have amended our lease form to forbid short-term rentals. The reasons are the same as the reasons given by resident landlords and neighborhoods everywhere: unknown people coming and going with no accountability or neighborhood connection, often on vacation and expecting to party, drinking and making noise late at night and causing damage. This description may not apply to all, but it is a risk that such people would be encouraged by the impersonal context of online rentals. In addition to these personal reasons, Wayne and I agree with those of you concerned that short-term rentals drive up rents for residents and contribute to instability. We are committed to our neighborhood and would like to see it stable. We also believe that hoteliers who do a good job deserve a reasonable return for their work, and shouldn't be undercut by profiteers snapping up apartments to sat up unlicensed hotel rooms all over the place. I hope the Council and the City administration will work out a good arrangement whereby actual residents may host short-term occupants in their own homes, subject to the terms of their leases or the condominium agreements which may govern their condos, or the sensible rules the City may see fit to control short-term rental of single-family homes. I hope the solution will allow people to make full, lawful, peaceful use of their own homes while accepting limitations for the protection of neighbors. I hope that the solution you find will tend to provide reasonable priced spaces for responsible travelers wishing to experience short visits to Cambridge, without turning the City into one big hotel. Thank you. Megan Brook