SOUTH PORTLAND — A city resident turned in an estimated 1,484 petition signatures before Monday’s deadline in the hope of forcing the City Council to reconsider new regulations on short-term housing rentals.
Clerk Emily Scully and her staff have 20 days to validate those signatures, but if at least 1,000 of them are valid, the council must reconsider its vote on the regulations.
If the council decides not to repeal the regulations, the city will hold a voter referendum on the petition question at the next election.
Michael Frabotta, the Preble Street resident who took out the petition, spent much of the weekend pushing to meet the deadline. He and several others gathered signatures at different spots throughout the city, and in some instances there were confrontations between supporters and opponents.
On Saturday, petitioners called police several times, prompting Officer Andrew Nelson to issue a cease harassment notice to Daniel Romano based on a complaint filed by Frabotta. Frabotta said he felt threatened by Romano, who said he was “shadowing” petitioners to make sure people understood the regulations before signing.
On Monday, Frabotta took out a restraining order against Romano because, he said, he continued to feel threatened by Romano.
Supporters of the new regulations say they are trying to protect neighborhoods from being overtaken by commercial home rentals offered on websites such as Airbnb and HomeAway.
Petitioners, however, say they’re trying to protect landowners’ rights and fighting for a better municipal review process. They are seeking to overturn the City Council’s 6-1 vote Feb. 20 that approved sweeping regulations of short-term rentals and banned unhosted stays in residential neighborhoods.
City officials passed the rules to stop people from buying, renovating and renting out entire homes to transient guests in a community that’s trying to increase affordable housing and preserve residential neighborhoods. Short-term rental operators who don’t live on the premises will have a grace period before the city moves to shut them down in September.
Operators of unhosted short-term rentals stand to lose significant income and property investments as a result.
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