Groton — The Noank First District Zoning Commission is holding a meeting next Thursday — not an official public hearing — to obtain informal public comment on its proposal to regulate short-term rentals, such as Airbnb and Vrbo. A short-term rental is less than 30 days.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at Noank Baptist Church. Commission members will accept comments until 9:45 p.m. but may choose to continue the meeting later "if a sufficient number of people remain wishing to speak."

Chairman Rick Smith emailed the agenda, an introduction, rules of engagement, and the proposed ordinance to the fire district's distribution list on June 10. He confirmed Thursday that changes haven't been made since.

The ordinance would limit rentals to one group in any two-week period, cap rentals at 45 days per year, require at least one member of each party to be over age 25, prohibit rentals in the first three years of a home's ownership, preclude signage advertising short-term rentals, and mandate that an operator or agent respond within 20 minutes of being contacted with an emergency or complaint. The proposal has already proved controversial.

Only Noank residents, property owners, and attorneys representing clients will be allowed to speak, and for three minutes each. Those wishing to speak must email nfdzoning@gmail.com by 5 p.m. Monday and provide their Noank address.

If time remains after all people who have signed up in advance speak, there will be a chance for those who sign up the night of the meeting to talk. If time still remains and the commission is willing, those who have already spoken may be allowed to speak a second time.

The commission strongly urges speakers to also submit their comments in writing. Written comments about short-term rentals received as early as April 1 and as late as five days after the meeting will be considered as comments submitted for the public input meeting, considering many people have already written to the commission on this issue.

Commissioners will not respond to questions, engage in debate, or make any decisions during this meeting.

The agenda says speakers "will be most effective if they recommend changes to specific measures and describe why they think their alternative will better meet the Commission's goals."

Zoning commission members spent a lot of time across two meetings in May discussing the parameters of the public input session.

They discussed where to hold the meeting, how far back to include comments already submitted on STRs, the idea of holding a hybrid virtual/in-person meeting, whether to limit comments to three minutes per person or per property, and whether to let an attorney speak for up to 15 minutes, representing up to five clients.

Smith said he thought the commission "could get more effective comments out of a representative who doesn't have a dog in the fight than someone who's frankly emotional about it," though commission member Nip Tanner said he'd be surprised if input from attorneys helped the commission craft a better proposal.

Smith also commented in May, "The commission has a right to ponder everything they hear and decide which (comments) they want to embrace and include, or they may get to the end of the day and say, 'I didn't hear anything that changed my mind,' and that's the commission's right to do that."

e.moser@theday.com