Short-Term Rentals in York County, Maine: Town Rules

York County has no county-level short-term-rental rule at all -- each coastal town writes and rewrites its own, and four of them (Kittery, York, Wells, Ogunquit) currently have genuinely different, actively-evolving regimes. If an STR is part of your plan for a York County property, the town it sits in determines nearly everything.

This page covers what's specific to York County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

Why this is a standalone question in York County specifically

Maine has no statewide short-term-rental law of general application, and York County's government has no zoning role at all -- so STR regulation here is purely a municipal question, decided town by town with no county-level backstop or consistency requirement. That alone is true across most of Maine. What makes York County a genuinely distinct case is how many of its towns are actively regulating, or actively fighting over regulating, STRs right now: Kittery has had a detailed licensing ordinance in place since 2020, York rejected one ordinance by referendum in 2024 and is actively building a second, Wells has been debating a zoning-overlay approach through 2026 while a narrower 28-day rule already applies to some properties, and Ogunquit enforces a minimum-stay rule through its zoning code rather than a standalone STR ordinance. A buyer or investor evaluating an STR-oriented purchase anywhere in York County needs to treat these as four separate regulatory environments, not variations on one county-wide theme.

Kittery: an owner-occupancy licensing system in place since 2020

Kittery adopted its short-term rental ordinance (Chapter 5.12 of the town code) on July 27, 2020, and it remains the county's most established STR regime. The core mechanism is an owner-occupancy requirement: only the property owner may apply for a short-term rental license, and that owner must be domiciled at the property for no less than 183 days in a tax year, documented by a Maine income tax return or comparable evidence of owner-occupancy. Only one short-term rental contract is permitted per dwelling unit at any given time -- no stacking multiple simultaneous bookings across separate rooms or units under one license. Kittery's Code Enforcement Officer can deny a license or a renewal for failure to meet these requirements, and can suspend or revoke an existing license after three or more substantiated criminal or ordinance violations tied to the property within a 12-month period. For a buyer specifically hoping to run a non-owner-occupied investment STR in Kittery, this ordinance is a hard structural barrier, not a fee or paperwork hurdle -- confirm current occupancy-requirement language directly with Kittery's Code Enforcement office before assuming a purely investment-model rental is licensable at all.

York: a 2024 referendum defeat, and an active second attempt

York had never regulated short-term rentals despite them operating in town for roughly a century, and put its first attempt to a town-wide vote in May 2024. That proposed ordinance would have required all STR units to register with the town, undergo permitted inspection every three years, and pay a fee (discussed at roughly $350 for a three-year cycle to cover the town's administrative costs). Voters narrowly rejected it, 2,029 to 1,788, at the May 18, 2024 referendum. Rather than dropping the effort, the Selectboard directed the Town Manager to form a seven-person committee to draft a version more acceptable to both rental owners and residents opposed to the first attempt. That committee voted unanimously on July 21, 2025 to recommend a new framework built around a registration system with different requirements for owner-occupied versus non-owner-occupied properties, a genuinely more nuanced approach than the rejected 2024 version. As of this research pass, that recommendation had not yet been confirmed as adopted or scheduled for a specific referendum date -- treat York as a jurisdiction with rules actively in flux, and confirm current status directly with the Town Clerk or Code Enforcement office before assuming either the old (no regulation) or a specific new framework applies to a given parcel.

Wells: a 28-day occupancy cap already in force, and a paused overlay-district proposal

Wells regulates short-term rentals (defined there as any rental of six consecutive months or less) through a use permit and certificate-of-occupancy requirement, but the town's more distinctive mechanism is a separate 28-day rule that already applies to certain properties, particularly in specific condominium communities and "contel" (condo-motel hybrid) developments: those units cannot be occupied by the same party for more than 28 consecutive days, a restriction originally meant to keep vacation-oriented units from converting into de facto year-round residences. Separately, Wells spent much of 2025 and 2026 debating a proposed Short-Term Rental Overlay District that would have concentrated permitted STR use into a defined zone near Route 1, but as of September 2026 the Board of Selectmen paused that overlay-district proposal (while advancing a separate data-center moratorium question to voters instead). For a Wells property, check both whether the specific unit falls under the existing 28-day rule (a title or condo-association search matters here as much as a zoning check) and the town's current, still-unsettled broader STR policy before assuming either a fixed or an unregulated environment.

Ogunquit: regulation through zoning, not a separate STR ordinance

Ogunquit takes a structurally different approach from its neighbors: rather than a standalone STR licensing ordinance, short-term rentals are addressed through the town's zoning code itself, under a "Transient Accommodation Type 1" (TA-1) use classification defined in the Ogunquit Zoning Ordinance. The practical requirement for an owner is a minimum stay of seven days -- shorter bookings are not permitted -- plus a business registration with the town and compliance with applicable safety codes. Because this sits inside the zoning ordinance rather than a separate licensing chapter, a change to Ogunquit's STR rules would likely come through a zoning amendment process rather than a dedicated STR-ordinance vote, which is worth understanding if you're trying to track whether and how the rule might change. Confirm a specific parcel's TA-1 eligibility and the current minimum-stay figure directly with Ogunquit's code enforcement office.

What to actually check before you buy for STR use in York County

Start by identifying the specific town -- there is no county-wide answer, and even neighboring towns along this stretch of coast currently apply meaningfully different rules. In Kittery, confirm whether the current owner-occupancy requirement is compatible with your intended investment model. In York, contact the Town Clerk or Code Enforcement office directly for the current, possibly still-changing status of the STR registration framework rather than relying on the 2024 referendum outcome alone. In Wells, check both the specific unit's exposure to the existing 28-day rule and the town's current overlay-district policy status. In Ogunquit, confirm current TA-1 zoning eligibility and minimum-stay requirements. And in every town, request current details in writing (an email or letter to Code Enforcement) rather than relying on a listing agent's or seller's characterization of local STR rules -- ordinances here have changed, or are actively changing, in each of these four towns within the last few years.

Short-Term Rentals in York County: A Town-by-Town Regulatory Patchwork