2026-09-10 · Massachusetts · Legislation

What happened. Nantucket voters legalized short-term rentals in all but one zoning district, and a resident promptly asked the Attorney General to nullify the vote on procedural grounds.

At a Special Town Meeting on 5 November 2025, voters adopted Article 1, restoring zoning language recognising the renting and leasing of dwellings as a lawful principal use. The vote was 1,045 to 421 — about 71 percent, clearing the two-thirds threshold.¹

The history behind it

Nantucket's zoning bylaw recognised “renting and leasing” as a lawful principal use until 2015, when the language was inadvertently removed. Article 1 restores it.

Nearly identical articles had failed three times: at the 2024 Annual Town Meeting (Article 59), the 2024 Special Town Meeting (Article 1), and the 2025 Annual Town Meeting (Article 66).

The challenge

On 15 December 2025, an attorney filed a six-page letter with the Attorney General's Municipal Law Unit on behalf of an anonymous Nantucket resident and Town Meeting voter, arguing the vote violates G.L. c. 40A §5, which bars a defeated zoning bylaw from returning within two years.

Town Counsel's position is that Article 1 differs from the defeated articles because it “expressly allows both long-term and short-term rentals” rather than restricting them.

How the Municipal Law Unit ruled could not be established. We found no reporting on the outcome, and that is the open question.

1. Nantucket Current, bid to nullify Nantucket's vote legalizing short-term rentals submitted to Attorney General ↩
2. M.G.L. c. 64G §15, preserving association authority over short-term rentals ↩