The discussion comes as Southwest Harbor and other MDI communities consider how to respond to new state requirements taking effect in 2027.
Aug 28, 2026
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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—According to its legal counsel, for the Town of Southwest Harbor to have a short-term rental registration that’s enforceable, the town has to make an ordinance.
That’s the news Town Manager Karen Reddersen gave her Select Board, during their meeting earlier this week.
“You could adopt a policy for rental registrations, but it wouldn’t be enforceable,” she said. “If you require compliance, you do have to put forward and it has to go forward via ordinance.”
The same would go for penalties and registration fees.
An ordinance is basically a law created at a local level to regulate some activity or use at a local level. How an ordinance is creates is typically a more detailed and longer process—often laid out by a town’s charter—than a more simple policy change.
An email from Maine Municipal Association’s legal department to the town writes, “Theoretically, the Board could adopt a policy asking for rental registrations, but it would not be enforceable and so no one would have to comply with it…. I think that the Board can create a registration requirement for all rentals or just for short-term rentals, assuming the Board can make a legitimate distinction between the land use or health, safety and welfare impacts that short-term rentals v. other types of rentals create. Many municipalities do regulate short-term rentals differently than other types of rentals.”
The Maine Municipal counsel also provided examples of how Scarborough, Kennebunk, and Portland regulate their short-term rentals (STRs), which Reddersen included in her packet to her Select Board along with a guidebook from the Hancock County Planning Commission about how other area towns deal with short-term rentals.
The conversation stems from an August 11 Select Board meeting when the Board members directed Reddersen to find out what the town has to do procedurally to inventory its rentals, both long-term and short-term.
Because of new state legislation, (LD 2173, An Act to Update the Laws Regarding Housing Developments and Accessory Dwelling Units) multiple towns in the Mount Desert Island area are looking at how to come into compliance prior to July 1, 2027.
The worry is that towns with no governing ordinance in place for STRs are susceptible to unfettered and potentially enormous growth in short-term rental units. Bar Harbor is the only Mount Desert Island town with ordinances calling for STR registration and that also caps STRs that aren’t primary residences.
Using data from AirBnB, the Hancock County Planning Commission’s report states that the amount of STRs in Hancock and Washington counties is seasonal, peaking in between July and September and that monthly active listings vary from less than 1,000 to over 4,000.
Housing advocates often look to decreasing short-term rentals in the hopes of encouraging long-term rentals as part of the push to find up to 84,000 housing units throughout the state, an amount identified by a 2023 Housing Production Needs Study created by the state.
The Southwest Harbor Select Board also reviewed the Town of Tremont’s recent survey to its residents about their views on short-term rentals.
“I think starting with something like this would be a great thing to put out there,” said Select Board member Melanie Lisy.
“At the Sustainability Committee, they did say the work group is working on housing, so they would be happy to help with a survey like this, too,” Vice Chair Natasha Johnson said.
The Sustainability Committee will bring back the Select Board a summary of its meeting and its thoughts on surveys and the best way to disperse the survey.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
2023 Housing Production Needs Study
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