Milton Planning Board Directs Lawyer to Draft Short-Term Rental Bylaw

MILTON -- June 11, 2026, Milton Planning Board moves toward short-term rental bylaw, targeting fall Town Meeting. The board directed KP Law attorney Carolyn Murray to produce a draft short-term rental bylaw by June 20, using Newton's registration-and-enforcement framework as a starting point, after a second consecutive meeting at which a resident described emergency-access blockages and repeated police calls at an Airbnb two doors from his home on Antwerp Street. Chair Meredith DePaul said she favors Newton's owner-occupancy requirement, operators must reside in the property at least nine out of 12 months, and its provision stripping short-term rental eligibility for six months after three violations in a 12-month period; the board left open whether the bylaw would be structured as a zoning amendment or a general bylaw, with Murray noting a general bylaw avoids grandfathering complications. The board also voted 3-1 to send a revised letter to the Library Trustees requesting collaborative land-use review, after live edits removed language that Member Maggie O'Field said put the board's thumb on the scale against a specific parking approach; O'Field cast the dissenting vote. Separately, Murray told the board its 1938 zoning bylaw lacks use tables, dimensional tables, and coherent structure, and that a diagnostic report will take roughly six weeks, ruling out any re-codification articles for the approximately July 7 fall Town Meeting warrant deadline.