Lanesborough Planning Board Begins Drafting Short-Term Rental Bylaw for Annual Town Meeting

LANESBOROUGH — January 20, 2026 — Lanesborough Planning Board launches short-term rental bylaw drafting with a February 3 special meeting. Building Inspector Brian told the board that none of the roughly 60 known short-term rentals in town has been permitted legally, and that the town received only about $2,000 last fall from state Department of Revenue pass-through fees with no operator addresses attached. Members debated whether to allow rentals by right or by special permit, discussed limiting non-owner-occupied rentals to one unit per entity in residential zones — citing Pittsfield's recently adopted one-unit cap with a special permit pathway for more — and considered a 90-day annual rental cap for absentee-owned properties modeled on Williamstown's bylaw. The board also directed planning staff to draft ADU bylaw amendments removing special permit and parking requirements now prohibited by state regulation and replacing the existing 1,200-square-foot cap with a planning board special permit for anything larger — a shift intended to ease the path for residents like one constituent on 20 acres who needed more than 1,200 square feet for a family member's home.