BUCKLAND — Voters will consider adopting a new bylaw to better regulate short-term rentals and will review budget requests totaling nearly $5.88 million for fiscal year 2025 during Annual Town Meeting on Saturday.

The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. in the Mohawk Trail Regional School auditorium.

The Short-Term Residential Rental Bylaw is being proposed by the Planning Board to allow for brief rental lodgings to encourage tourism, while reducing impacts to neighbors. Another aim is to maintain long-term rental housing for town residents. The bylaw will also help to enforce state and local health and safety regulations.

According to information presented at a recent public hearing on this article, about 20 short-term rentals were registered in Buckland with the state Department of Revenue in late 2022. But in March of this year, AirDNA, a company that compiles data on short-term rentals, reported 40 “active listings” within the Shelburne Falls market — with 80% renting homes and 20% renting single rooms.

According to Planning Board Co-Chair Michael Hoberman, the short-term rental bylaw was developed in response to concerns raised a few years ago, when the town voted on zoning changes that were intended to increase housing stock — reducing minimum lot size, allowing cluster development and allowing small apartments at owner-occupied homes.

“The concern was, ‘Won’t these provisions open the door to short-term housing?’” said Hoberman. “So we assured people that we would study the issue, and that the next time around, we’d come up with a bylaw to address it.”

The bylaw states all short-term rentals must be registered with the town. Each registration must include the property owners’ names and contact information for someone who can respond 24/7 to an emergency or disturbance at the property within two hours. The applicants also need a certificate of liability insurance and a health inspection to determine that the property meets sanitation and building codes.

Short-term rental registration cannot be transferred to another person, and it ends whenever the rented property is sold or transferred to another owner. A designee chosen by the Board of Health will serve to enforce the bylaw. Failure to comply with an enforcement action could result in a $300 fine, with each day of noncompliance considered a separate violation.

Also, one off-street parking space should be provided for each overnight room, unless an alternate plan is approved by special permit. No loud music, excessive traffic or other disturbances will be permitted, and no more than two adults per room is allowed for overnight occupancy.

Budget

As the town heads into fiscal year 2025, it is doing better financially than this time a year ago, when Buckland needed a tax levy-limit override. According to Finance Committee Chair Larry Langford, total revenues to Buckand are coming in at about $5.93 million while budget requests and school assessments are totaling nearly $5.88 million. The total spending request represents a 4.8% increase over the current fiscal year’s figures.

“This amount was the result of maintaining most of the tight budgets we were forced to create last year,” Langford said. He added that Buckland’s greatest financial challenge is the rising cost of education and the “flat-lining” of state aid, as student enrollment in the schools decline.

For the budget year that begins in July, Buckland’s total assessment for schools will increase by 3.7%, to $3.18 million. More than 90% of Buckland’s total school assessment is from the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, which is going up by $125,138 (4.5%) over the current budget year. Near level-funded state aid will provide only an additional $30 per pupil for districts like Mohawk Trail, and it reimburses 60% of regional transportation costs. Also, Mohawk Trail’s busing costs rose by 12% with the latest contract, which was the only bid offered.

Buckland will be asked to pay $2.9 million (a 4.5% increase) toward Mohawk Trail’s operating assessment, as well as $66,423 (a 27% decrease) toward its capital assessment. Also, the district is asking member towns for additional sums to upgrade telephone infrastructure for Enhanced 911 service. For Buckland, the request is $4,297 for Mohawk Trail Regional School and $15,541 for Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School.

Buckland will also be asked to pay $223,916, a 6% increase, to Franklin County Technical School due to the addition of a Buckland student.

A lengthy article from the Mohawk Trail Regional School District spells out how school operating and capital costs will be shared by member towns by changing the formula for town assessments in the regional agreement. While Buckland approved this article last year, not all member towns did, so the proposal is on the Annual Town Meeting warrants for all district member towns again this year.

The town’s operating budget totals $2.2 million, which is a 6% increase over the current year’s figures. The $136,730 increase includes cost-of-living adjustments for town employees, Highway Department salaries, shared-policing services and Recreation Department staffing needed for the full operation of the new pool.

To view the full 28-article warrant and budget reports, visit town.buckland.ma.us/home/news/annual-town-meeting-may-4-2024.