Creating an exception to the rule banning short-term internet rentals would create two classes of membership.  We’ve never done that; it’s contrary to our one-for-all community spirit.   Our “Blue Book” of rules would, for the first time, list names of members to whom a rule would not apply.

And it’s legally dangerous in two ways.  Our attorney has advised us that creating an “exception” for five households would encourage others to challenge our ban.  Plus, property rights are notoriously difficult to restrict, once granted.  We can’t predict the future.  If one of these properties becomes a nuisance “party house,” it will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to withdraw this permission.

Incidentally, the claim that we have “grandfathered” before is false.  When Calvert County zoned all of Scientists’ Cliffs R-1 in 1974, our Blue Book took note of the county’s provision for a transition period for non-compliant properties.  The only reason the Board of Directors at that time mentioned it was to make our rule more restrictive than the county code.  That so-called grandfathering is not even in the current Blue Book, as all non-R-1 properties have been reconciled to the county zoning law.

If you believe that Airbnb/VRBO is great for Scientists’ Cliffs, you should also oppose grandfathering. Why should this lucrative opportunity be denied to the rest of us, and limited to the “Favored Five”?