Owner of the Silvershell Inn, Kate Hill, told the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals on August 11 that she was currently renting out two rooms to guests, as per her Special Permit to operate the bed & breakfast; however, after Hill left the meeting and the board browsed a website for B&B rentals, they found what they considered a total of four different rooms advertised for the Silvershell Inn.
Hill is seeking a Special Permit to now rent three rooms at her inn, the maximum allowed by the town bylaw. Hill was granted the Special Permit to rent two rooms back in August 2015 and now wants to add a third, which appeared to already be advertised on the B&B’s website, said board members.
The house, located at 460 Front Street, is limited to four bedrooms under the sewer regulation. Hill and her husband, who reside at the house, had a total of five bedrooms, forcing Hill to convert one of the rooms, the “pink room,” into a sewing room, Hill said. Building Commissioner Scott Shippey, present that evening, said that satisfied the four-bedroom sewer regulation.
Hill said she also offers the entire house for rent to guests, which she said was why the website appeared to advertise three bedrooms, which includes a third floor suite and a “family unit,” which consists of the pink room and the “blue room” that connect and share one bathroom.
Before she left, the board considered Hill’s request for a reduced fee for the application. She hoped the board would consider it an amendment to a prior filing instead of a new filing, but later after a board discussion, they decided the fee should be set as a new application.
Board members hovered around Chairman Marc LeBlanc’s iPad as he pulled up the website that features the three rental options: the green room, the third floor “Fo’c’sle Suite,” and the family unit. But they then explored a B&B website and found Silvershell Inn advertising what appears to be four rooms.
“There’s nothing to prevent the owner from booking her two rooms and then getting a phone call … and renting out four or five,” said LeBlanc.
“How do you police it?” asked Shippey hypothetically.
“You can’t,” said LeBlanc.
The board then moved over to the inn’s Facebook page and read the reviews, with one review describing the daily use of the inn’s pool.
“She said they never use it,” said board member Michelle Smith. “Those were her words tonight.”
When the board granted the Special Permit in 2015, one of the conditions was not allowing guest use of the pool until the Board of Health approved it, but the board was not certain if Hill had that approval.
“So there’s some concerns here,” said LeBlanc, who then questioned Hill’s honesty about her inn operations.
Returning their attention back to the number of bedrooms, Smith suggested Hill be ordered to remove the door from the pink room, now considered a sewing room, to prevent it from being considered a rentable bedroom.
Board member Kate Mahoney suggested the board refrain from granting the three-bedroom Special Permit until Hill could prove full compliance with the original two-bedroom permit, and even revoke the permit if Hill was not in compliance.
“My gut would be to not put that cart before the horse,” said LeBlanc, but he suggested the board could deny the permit for the third bedroom if they found Hill in violation of the first permit.
The board had closed the public hearing earlier in the evening and took the matter under advisement. They made no decision that night.
Also during the meeting, the board acknowledged former Chairman Eric Pierce’s resignation from the ZBA, citing future travel obligations that would prevent him from attending meetings on a regular basis.
The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled for August 25 at 7:30 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry
