Year-round homes in Berkshire County are disappearing and are being replaced by seasonal homes or short-term rentals! In Williamstown, 16% of homes are only seasonally occupied, or short-term rentals. In Richmond, it’s 25%. That means fewer homes and higher prices for the people who keep these towns running.
You can do something about it! Vote for the Seasonal Communities Designation at your upcoming town meeting.
Upcoming Town Meetings
Williamstown: May 19th
Richmond: May 20th
What is the “Seasonal Communities” designation?
In 2024, Massachusetts passed the Affordable Homes Act, creating numerous tools to address the major housing shortage facing the Commonwealth. One of those tools was crafted to address the particular crisis in communities like Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and the Berkshires – where seasonal second homes and short-term rentals are drivingeating up the housing market.
The Seasonal Communities designation is intended to fight that trend, by creating both required and optional policies for designated towns, and assembling financial opportunities and other technical assistance for local policymakers.
What the Seasonal Communities designation does:
- Requires zoning reform to support Tiny Homes and homes on undersized lots, as long as they are occupied year-round
- Allows optional creation of local or regional Year-Round Housing Trust Funds, for the preservation and creation of “Attainable Housing” at 250% of the Area Median Income
- Allows option for communities to fund the creation or preservation of Artist Housing
- Makes communities who accept the designation eligible for Massachusetts’ Seasonal Communities Grant Program, which funds initiatives like planning, zoning, technical assistance, and public infrastructure development like waste disposal and utility extensions
What the Seasonal Communities designation does NOT do:
- Automatically create numerous new homes (consider that ADUs are allowed by right statewide, but haven’t “taken over” any communities)
- Require towns to approve Movable Tiny Homes, RVs or camper vans as residences – though they can allow Movable Tiny Homes if the town desires
If your community is eligible as a Seasonal Community, and you are concerned about the local housing crisis – vote for the designation at your Annual Town Meeting!