Vacationers looking to get away to Westport for a day or a week have no shortage of options for lodging — an entire inn at Westport Point available for $13,580 per week, a converted blacksmith shop situated on a goat farm, a camper parked on a commercial property near the police station, a barn overlooking the East Branch and scores of other modest and not so modest homes — all listed on the popular AirBnb website.

While there are no regulations setting out rules for property owners who want to rent out their homes as short term rentals, or STRs, there could be by next year, as the town dusts off an effort to regulate the practice.

At last week’s zoning board of appeals meeting, members agreed to appoint two members to a subcommittee that will be charged with drafting bylaws to regulate STRs in Westport, getting them approved by the planning and select boards, and presenting them to residents at next year’s annual Town Meeting. Two members of the planning board, and one from the board of health, will also take part.

“We have to look at both sides of this, from the side of people who want to gain a little extra money renting out their property, and all the neighbors who have to live with it,” zoning board chairman Roger Menard said. “We have to be cognizant of both.”

There is currently no town oversight of short term rentals  here, as is the case with Little Compton and Tiverton, both of which are also studying the issue. But other South Coast towns have regulations on the books and it is to those towns, Menard said, that he and fellow board member Gerald Coutinho first started looking when they began exploring the issue here several years ago. Though they were able to come up with draft by-laws, those were set aside as more pressing issues called. It’s time they renewed the effort, Menard said.

“Hopefully this will go” quickly, he said. “Because we have a draft, we’re not starting from scratch."

Menard acknowledged that there could be three or four “thorny” issues to iron out as the town works toward a final draft, including how to deal with properties bought by out-of-town interests solely for the purpose of converting them to STRs, and whether and how to institute regulations that dictate the maximum of days a home can be rented out per year while still being considered a private home.

These issues are similar to those facing Little Compton and Tiverton, which are in the midst of their own studies. In those towns, officials say they need to be able to track STR rentals, make sure the homes being rented out are not being overcrowded and aren’t creating nuisance problems, and allow for licensing of those who wish to rent. Both towns have received considerable pushback in their efforts, much of it from property owners who say the rising cost of home ownership has left them no choice but to open their properties to the renting public for short stays.

For similar reasons, Menard said, “we really need to shore up this hole in our by-laws and we need to have a balance, I believe, between the rights of the neighborhood and the right of the owner. Some communites just don’t allow (STRs, but) Westport has a history. There’s a lot of people that need to do this, but there has to be a balance."

Once draft by-laws are prepared, they will go to the planning board for review, then the select board, then back to the planning board for a final resolution, and then, if there’s time, to the 2024 Town Meeting, Menard said.