Montclair NJ to consider regulations on short

Apr 26, 2024

A so-called extension to the MC Hotel could be converted into a majority of short-term "corporate rentals," after a majority of Montclair's Planning Board approved the change last week. But the discussion led members to concur that stiffer limits on transient housing town wide calls for a more robust review.

An amendment to add short-term rentals to the Montclair Center Gateway Redevelopment Plan passed last week, with Board Member Anthony Ianuale casting the sole opposing vote. But the approval has no bearing on existing zoning laws that already allow short-term rentals throughout Montclair, even in the gateway area.

However, the lack of any ordinance banning or regulating short-term units beyond language in the Center Gateway plan that limits tenants to a 30-day stay was the very reason some members called for tighter regulations.

Montclair's housing commission is forming a subcommittee on short-term rentals and is drafting a “comprehensive” ordinance to regulate the units, but doesn’t know whether the council will adopt it, according to Township Planner Janice Talley,

“There is a groundswell moving in that direction,” Talley told board members at the Aug. 21 meeting.

At the heart of the township's interest in short-term rentals is a hotel occupancy tax, which Councilor-At-Large Peter Yacobellis recently calculated could inject about $91,000 into the town’s coffers each year without adding new children to local schools.

The amendment for the plan was introduced at the behest of the MC Residences, that will now be an extension of the MC Hotel, also owned by some of the project's principals. The change will make 36 of the building's 40 units short-term tenants.

A 10% affordable housing requirement will account for the remaining four units, as was already codified in the plan.

“The affordable families [will be] living in a hotel, so they just have to absorb that," said Ianuale. "They’re not living there with other people who are renting and have a long-term interest in the property."

Ianuale's comment struck at New Jersey's ongoing battle with the short-term rental industry through websites like Airbnb. Councils across the state, including Rutherford, Jackson Township and Fort Lee, have already banned the practice, and its use is also subject to strict regulation in Asbury Park.

The bans are often the product of residents' complaints that when tenants have no permanent attachment to the neighborhood, the properties fall into disrepair and late-night parties disrupt the suburban quietude.

“There are a couple in my neighborhood and it doesn’t bother me," Board Member Carmel Loughman said of short-term rentals. "But there is one particular house that people hate the fact that this is an Airbnb, because people come, they party, they throw garbage around, they’re noisy. There is no respect for the neighbors. So, it can be problematic."

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Loughman voted with others to approve the change only for the Center Gateway Redevelopment Plan, which refers to the nexus of Bloomfield Avenue at Valley and Orange roads, but was staunch that the matter should pass through the Planning and Zoning boards ― as well as several subcommittees ― for town-wide consideration: “This has to have hearings.”

Board Member Carole Willis said it was a “curious development” that the town was considering an expansion of short-term units on the heels of passing rent control. Loughman agreed, saying, “I think the town is trying to raise some revenue.”

While both agreed the site under consideration made sense for short-term rentals given its location next to a hotel and parking garage, Loughman suggested limits on who could convert their property into similar units would prevent landlords from suddenly converting multi-family homes to short-term rentals if the new rent control ordinance decreased their income.

However, Board Chair John Wynne countered that landlord-tenant law would not allow sudden eviction throughout a three-family home. The tenants would all need to leave before the property could be converted, meaning a landlord would need to withstand even more dramatic losses as they waited for tenants to leave one by one.

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Despite no disagreement that a minimum rental term would help determine which units could be used for Airbnb style rentals, Wynne also noted that "theoretically" MC Residences would naturally attract its intended customer base, since a tenant intending to remain longer would pay a cheaper corporate rate there than renting a room nightly at a traditional hotel.

It seemed redundant to amend a redevelopment plan to allow a use that wasn't prohibited in the first place, but Talley explained the developers (including Brian Stolar's Pinnacle and Hampshire Companies) have struck a tentative agreement with Marriott to furnish the rooms.

But the national hotel giant would only commit to the project if the short-term use, described by Talley as “basically corporate rentals” operated through the [MC] Hotel, was protected in the plan's language.

In a prior statement, Yacobellis suggested the spirit of expanding Montclair's stock of short-term rentals is to cater to residents with stronger ties to the area, including graduate students or spouses in the midst of a separation.

Yacobellis made that suggestion in reference to ongoing plans to redevelop Lackawanna Plaza, not far from MC Residences.

Current language in the Lackawanna plan regulates short-term units in that complex to rental contracts with a three-day minimum and a maximum of 90 days.