The Westerly Town Council spent much of its July 27 meeting on a proposal that would bar most homeowners from renting out a house they do not live in, allowing "unhosted" short-term rentals in only three of the town's zoning districts. No vote was taken. The item was listed for discussion only, and the council directed the town solicitor and a three-member working group to answer several unresolved legal questions before an ordinance comes back.
The framework was presented at the meeting by members of a council subcommittee, according to the Westerly Town Council's published meeting recording. It would split short-term rentals into two categories in the town's zoning use table. A "hosted" rental is one where the property owner lives on site for the entire length of the guest's stay. An "unhosted" rental is one where the owner is not present.
Under the proposal as described, hosted rentals would be allowed anywhere a residence is allowed — meaning every residential district in town. Unhosted rentals would be limited to three districts: High-Density Residential 10, Shore Commercial Watch Hill, and Shore Commercial General.
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What it would change for existing rental owners
The most consequential question raised was whether people already renting out unhosted properties in the other districts would be allowed to continue.
Council members asked the solicitor directly. His answer was a description of what land-use law calls a nonconforming use: if a property owner was engaged in a use that zoning permitted, and the town later amends the zoning so that use is no longer allowed, the owner generally retains the right to keep doing exactly what they were doing. They cannot expand it or change it. That status attaches to the property rather than to the person, but it is lost if the owner discontinues the use.
Councilors on the subcommittee disputed that this would apply here. One council member said flatly that once the ordinance is approved, an owner in a hosted-only district who does not live at the property would not be able to operate — no grandfathering, no sunset date. Another argued that the town's short-term rental registration expires annually, so on day 366 the owner has no permission at all and therefore no continuing use to protect. That councilor also asked the solicitor to research whether creating an overlay district, rather than amending zoning, would avoid the nonconforming-use problem entirely.
The solicitor pushed back on the registration argument, saying it would be a difficult case to make because the registration is an administrative tracking process, not a license granting permission.
The disagreement is not academic. If existing unhosted rentals are protected, the ordinance would freeze the current number rather than reduce it. Council members on both sides said as much. One said the town cannot simply hold the line "where we've already been buried." Another said the answer eased her mind because many residents rely on the rental income to pay their bills.
Which coastal neighborhoods are in, and which are out
Several councilors questioned why some traditional summer areas were left out of the three permitted districts. The council president noted that Watch Hill has a substantial number of short-term rentals and that Shelter Harbor has more than a few, and asked why those areas were excluded and whether they could be added.
A subcommittee member responded that Watch Hill is not uniform: the commercial stretch along Bay Street is a logical place for short-term rentals, while a residential neighborhood off Ocean View Highway is not. Shelter Harbor, that councilor said, is a neighborhood.
Another subcommittee member said the group looked at Shelter Harbor and found roughly a half-dozen registered rentals, but that permitting unhosted rentals in that district would, because of how the district is applied elsewhere in town, effectively open up thousands of additional homes. The same councilor said the town's zoning map is, in her words, a mess, and that fixing it properly would be a multi-year project.
The vice president said the map appears to show Rural Residential 60 and Low-Density Residential 43 in the Watch Hill and Atlantic Avenue area, and questioned why they are treated differently from the Shore Commercial districts nearby. She said she needs more clarification, and separately argued the town should revise its zoning for uniformity before layering rental rules on top of it.
The lawsuit warning and the workforce housing comparison
One council member said she is an "absolute no" on the entire approach, arguing the town does not have the right to tell people what to do with homes they own and pay taxes on. She predicted litigation. "I think we're setting ourselves up for lawsuits with this," she said, describing it as a battle people will not accept quietly.
The same councilor drew a comparison to workforce housing, saying that if the town is going after short-term rentals over housing supply, it should apply the same scrutiny to workforce rentals housing employees brought in from other countries, who she said hold green cards. She said she opposes going after either category, but that the town cannot have it both ways because both remove units from the housing stock.
That comparison drew an immediate response. A subcommittee member opened his remarks by saying he does not have a disdain for legal immigrants and likes year-round families, then argued the real pressure comes from out-of-state buyers and investors converting houses into small businesses inside residential neighborhoods. He said the town could return perhaps 100 or 200 homes to year-round use.
A councilor countered by reviewing the registration list attached to the agenda and saying she did not find corporate owners on it, only individual names. She said one entry listing Stanton Realty reflects a rental agent, not the property owner.
A subcommittee member offered a different reading of the same list: more than half of the currently registered rentals already sit in the three districts that would remain open to unhosted use. On the question of authority, he said property use is already limited in many ways — you cannot build a nuclear reactor in your backyard — and that barring commercial activity in districts not zoned for it is a reasonable limit.
The council president said he favors restricting short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, citing coverage of overcrowding in Newport as a warning about what Westerly could become, while saying he wants to understand why historically seasonal shore areas were excluded.
Where it stands
Nothing was adopted. The council asked the solicitor to define more precisely what would end a property's nonconforming status, and to consider the overlay-district alternative. Members also raised increasing fines for owners who do not comply, and converting the registration into something closer to an enforceable contract with defined penalties.
The council president said he preferred bringing updates to the council in a workshop-style setting so the public can review them, rather than pushing an ordinance straight into a public hearing. A subcommittee member asked that the item be continued to the next agenda and said the group would meet during the three-week gap. The president said it would appear when the group is ready.
The council also voted on July 27 to move its August 24 regular meeting to August 31. Under that schedule, September meetings fall on the 14th and 28th. Residents who want to weigh in before an ordinance is drafted can address the council during citizens' comments; the registration list with zoning districts and the zoning maps discussed at the meeting were attached to the July 27 agenda.