The Harrison Township Committee adopted an ordinance at its June 15 meeting that prohibits certain short-term rentals from websites and apps – such as Airbnb – in the township.
That means homes in the community cannot be rented out in the short term, classified as 60 days or less, unless a property owner applies for a variance. The ordinance follows concerns from a resident about a website called Swimply, a rental service for private swimming pools.
“This (ordinance) would prohibit Swimply or anything in the short-term rental market, such as Airbnb,” Mayor Adam Wingate explained. “I think we’re seeing it right now with the World Cup. There are towns up north that are all of a sudden a bunch of people going through their properties on Airbnb. They don’t have any regulations and they’re having issues in their town.”
Those towns have seen a sudden and large influx of people for the cup’s eight matches in New Jersey, often more than the communities can handle. The township worries that could happen here.
At a public hearing before the ordinance vote, resident Paul Krug voiced concern that closing the community off from the Airbnb market could have a negative impact on the township.
“Now that could be purposeful,” he noted, “but it could also, I think, demand pretty substantial conversation in its own right, given the fact that we have somewhat limited accommodations both from a bed-and-breakfast and from a hotel perspective for people to stay in town.
“If people are using Airbnbs to stay in town,” Krug added, “then they’re spending their dollars in our town instead of staying over at the Courtyard in Glassboro and then spending their dollars in Glassboro.”
“There’s nothing that we could find positive that came from any of these,” Wingate said, referring to the rentals.
According to township Solicitor Brian Duffield, hotels are exempt from the ordinance. If a hotel wants to come to Harrison, they can still apply to do so. Those who rent out storage or apartment units are also exempt from the ordinance, as are long-term rentals.
“If someone’s gonna have someone in there for longer than 60 days,” he explained, “it’s a change of use. That actually triggers a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) inspection. We can’t police that if they’re doing it every weekend. We want to be sure that anybody staying in the property has the CO inspections and everything is complying with our ordinances.”
The next Harrison Township Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 6, at 7 p.m.
