Changing House Zoning / AirBnB workaround?

[Amil D.]

We have a 3-family in Swampscott, Massachusetts that also has a large basement. So this is potentially a four family house.

But we are only zoned for 2-family. Floors 1 and 2 are currently occupied by the tenants and us. My question is twofold:

1) if we can’t get it zoned to 3 or 4 family, can we at least Airbnb the basement? I don’t know how Airbnb is considered versus standard renting.

2) How hard would it be to get zoned to a 3 or even 4 family? What is the criteria of a zoning board that we should be considering?....or is this just a networking challenge?