Portland, Maine Uses STR Ordinance To Incentivize ADUs

On Aug 19th, the Portland, Maine City Council amended their short term rental (STR) ordinance. Their action generally tightens up STR regulation, and reduces the number of non-owner occupied short term rentals over time. The revised ordinance supports new ADU creation by exempting new ADUs from the non-owner occupied STR cap for the first 5 years after creation. 

So a homeowner can build a new ADU, rent it out as short term (defined by the city of Portland as less than 30 days), and recoup some of the costs of construction. After 5 years, the homeowner would have to go to the bottom of the waiting list for short term rental registration, so presumably most ADUs will then go into use as housing for a family member or as a long term rental.  

This is exciting, because it allows homeowners to help with the region’s housing crisis by creating new ADUs and allowing them to recoup some of the cost of construction through the higher revenues that come with short term rental, effectively getting a subsidy at no cost to taxpayers. 

The ordinance lives in Chapter 6 of the city code.