The town can now collect a 6% occupancy excise tax on hotels and short-term rentals, granting itself that privilege at the special Town Meeting session Wednesday night.
“If we are going to deliver the services town residents want, we must find additional sources of revenue,” said Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne in a presentation prior to debate. “The local option rooms tax will provide revenue without imposing significant additional costs on our operating budget, particularly the schools.”
The most recent effort to build a hotel in Belmont fell short in 2016, because there wasn’t zoning for it. Over the past year, the town has been building a case that a hotel will generate significant revenue with few adverse impacts.
During her presentation, Dionne said Arlington collected $623,845 and Concord collected $565,911 in fiscal 2025.
As part of the Belmont Center Overlay conversation, the consulting firm RKG determined Belmont can support a 150-room hotel, according to Dionne. A vote on the overlay and the overlay-adjacent hotel zoning change is in early 2026.
Precinct 1 member Jack Weiss was the only member of the Warrant Committee who voted against support of the hotel tax.
“I can’t separate the short-term rentals from the hotel,” he said. “I am fully supportive, if we have a hotel, of having a 6% occupancy tax. By passing this warrant article tonight, we are tacitly endorsing the collection of revenue from people operating illegally in our town. As a matter of principle, I can’t support that.”
During her presentation, Dionne said there are 73 short-term rentals in Belmont, gleaning the information from a state website.
Mary Lewis, a member from Precinct 1, reflected the majority opinion of the body.
“I rise in strong support of this article,” she said. “I think, even if we don’t see a hotel for several years, there are some Airbnbs that are permitted, that would already start benefiting from this in 30 days. It’s worth doing, regardless of whether the hotel is built in a year or three years.”
Precinct 7 member Michael McNamara, also supporting the measure, argued there were unseen benefits.
“There’s an undervalued or underappreciated bit, which is the ability to hold events or conferences,” he said.
Discussion was briefly derailed when Precinct 5 Town Meeting member Tomasina Olsen moved to dismiss the article. Her argument mirrored Weiss’ assertion that approving the hotel tax before the hotel was approved tacitly condoned unpermitted short-term rentals. After a brief discussion, Olsen’s motion was rejected.
After about 40 minutes of discussion, members approved Article 15, 219-9 with one abstention.
In other business
- Approved Article 5 to buy or lease easements to allow construction of Phase 1 of the Community Path 210-15, with five abstentions.
- Approved Article 6 to create an easement on town property to allow construction of the Community Path 220-6-4.
- Approved a revolving fund to take in revenue from potential rentals of the space at the new library. According to Library Trustee Kathy Keohane, they expect $4,000 to $8,000 in revenue from the space rentals. The money will be used to enhance the maintenance budget. It passed 229-0-0.
- Approved acceptance of Carleton Circle as a public way 222-1-3.
- Articles 7 and 8 were dismissed.
Reports
Clair Colburn, chair of the Library Building Committee, told Town Meeting members that substantial completion of the construction should be done in November. Staff and books will begin moving into the space in mid-December. The building will be open to the public Jan. 8 and there will be a grand opening on Jan. 10 with a Jan. 11 snow date.
According to Colburn, the project is under budget and on schedule.
Mark Haley, chair of the rink building committee, said the rink will begin renting ice on Nov. 3. The ribbon cutting is set for Saturday, Nov. 15 with a dedication, open house, and free skate.
Work on solar panel installation is underway and when the building is open, the panels will be online and generating electricity, Haley said.
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