LYNNFIELD EYES SHORT-TERM RENTS BAN, BIZSMART
Murder weighs on town
Lynnfield town officials are looking to ban short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and HomeAway after a 33-year-old man was shot and killed earlier this year at a sprawling mansion that a homeowner says he agreed to rent out for a college reunion.
“Those things aren’t regulated, there’s got to be some sort of safety for the neighborhood,” said Philip Crawford, chairman of the Lynnfield Board of Selectmen.
Crawford and other selectmen plan to introduce a measure at Town Meeting later this month that would ban rentals in Lynnfield for fewer than 30 days.
Keivan Heath was attending a party at a rented house on Needham Road in May when police say he was found suffering from gunshot wounds around 3 a.m. Alex Styller, the home’s owner, told investigators he rented the mansion out for what he thought was going to be a small college reunion, but which ended up drawing nearly 100 people.
The house, which is currently on the market, is big enough to sleep 11, and rents for $1,400 a night, according to online listings for the “super modern European mansion.”
On the heels of Heath’s shooting death, Lynnfield officials sent Styller a cease-and-desist order, which Styller has appealed. A decision is expected in November. Styller’s attorney said they are drafting a request for a special permit.
Styller declined to speak about the murder, but defended the practice of short-term rentals.
“The guests whom I see personally and what I know from friends of mine, guests are wonderful, they are great people, like people who we have as neighbors, people who we work with,” Styller said. “Those are normal, wonderful, beautiful people who want to travel, and to treat them any differently than we treat our guests, our neighbors, is absolutely illogical and wrong.”
Christopher Barrett, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said Lynnfield is a bedroom community without tourist attractions, so it is unclear why a person would want to stay there for a few days or a week unless it was to throw a party or hold a large event.
“We want to protect our neighborhoods, and if somebody is going to rent their home, we want them to be invested in the community,” Barrett said. “We have to question what is a one-week rental for in a community like Lynnfield.”
Styller said his guests have included foreign dignitaries and executives of large corporations who are making brief trips to Massachusetts.
A spokeswoman for the Essex County District Attorney’s office said there have been no arrests in Heath’s killing, and said the investigation is ongoing.