The Cape Elizabeth new short-term rental restrictions may well reflect the affluence of most property owners. But they play havoc with any who are not affluent or who manage to have a second home in Maine or on the shore only by recovering part of annual property taxes and/or costs by sharing use with short-term renters, considerations addressed when building or buying with no reason to anticipate such a future blow as the new regulations.
Less affluent, but able to cover high property taxes on a summer lakeside second home, a few short-term rentals annually serve to pay the salaries of several Haitian teachers. The unforeseen Cape Elizabeth regulations could well shut down the only school available to 300 children!
William H. Slavick
Cape Elizabeth
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