Let’s find some common ground

Mystic and the greater Groton area is a wonderful place for many reasons and after reading through the posts in this forum, I can see many others love Mystic and Groton as much as I do. Perhaps @william provides a common sense approach that we can work with. Many have argued that the congestion of the downtown, especially the historic housing areas is creating a decreased quality of life for year round residents. I like the idea that @william provides around parking restrictions and tying these to existing occupancy & parking regulations that apply to motels/hotels. This would seem to be a common sense approach that would lessen the issue and provide STRs a place in the community. Given the amount of day tourism I have been seeing, seemingly year round (hour long wait for a table at Red 36 in March) and these folks finding there way into these areas to park, I’m not sure this will solve the problem entirely though. Perhaps providing special permits to properties outside of the downtown or densely populated areas would make sense? These properties may have larger lots, have off-street parking and can accommodate larger groups without any of the impact described in many of the other posts. Why throw the baby out with the bath water. Visitors to Mystic, many of which are families, spend a lot money in local businesses and want lodging options beyond the $400 a night, 180 sqft Marriott rooms. Properly placed / zoned STRs would fill this need nicely. Also…Airbnb runs an incredibly tight ship. They don’t allow parties, they rate hosts AND guests and they update these ratings immediately. This creates a group of visitors that respects property and neighborhoods. Seems like a win / win to me.