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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSTRCommMtgMinutes 4.02.24.pdfPage 1 of 6 Short Term Rental Subcommittee April 2, 2024 Attending: Supervisor: Al Krupski Deputy Supervisor John Stype (Chair) Town Board: Jill Doherty, Greg Doroski, Government Liaison: Gwynn Schroeder Building Dept: Mike Verity Planning Staff: Heather Lanza, Mark Terry, Mara Cerezo Town Attorney: Paul DeChance, Jack Squicciarini, Ben Johnson Code Enforcement: Arthur Bloom, Lester Baylinson Housing Advisory Commission: Cheryl Amara Guest Speaker: Katie Hodgdon, Attorney with NY Association of Towns (Via Zoom) Welcome & Introductions: Supervisor Krupski welcomed and thanked the group for committing time to addressing this important topic. Everyone introduced themselves and their roles. Presentation by Katie Hodgdon: [PowerPoint is available and the article from NY Zoning Law also summarizes the case law and main points of her presentation.] ● Airbnb experienced a 40% increase in revenues from 2021-2022. Estimated revenue of $8.4 Billion in 2022. ● Short-term rentals can earn 100% of the income of a yearly rental in less than 25% of the time. (Based on 2017 data, so current numbers could differ.) ● Definitions in the code are very important! ○ See slides for definition ideas ■ Vacation rental ■ Transient Rental occupancy ● Utilize Town Law Section 130 & 136 to impose owner occupancy requirements (Zoning authority does not cover this, better to go through police power.) Page 2 of 6 ○ Under zoning, you must regulate the “use”, not the “owner”. Town Law Section 272a is the authority for the zoning part. ○ Establishing a durational time limit for STRs is within the Town’s zoning authority, as this is regulating the use and not the owner. ○ Some municipalities have regulated the owner in NY; however, those have not yet been challenged to see if they will hold up in legal proceedings. ● To ensure the locality is on solid legal ground, the best scenario is to adopt a local law that is in alignment with the comprehensive plan. ○ Should we address short term rentals in more detail in our Comp Plan in order to support any legislation we might adopt? ● Special Use Permit (aka Special Exception). Town Law 261 Permitting. Tie it to the owner. Non-transferable. Indicate the permit isn’t a right, it is a privilege and can be revoked. Hignell-Stark case 2022. ○ Lots of considerations for permits (listed on a slide) ■ Require filing of “health and safety policy guidelines” – include emergency evacuation plans/diagrams and provision of safety equipment ■ Notify adjacent property owners. ■ Give enforcing officer broad authority to impose reasonable conditions on permit so long as consistent with code and directly related to use of STR. ■ List primary contacts - must establish a local contact to answer any issues/complaints within a reasonable time frame ● Regulating the Owner: ● Town Law Section 136 - Authority to license and regulate inns, boarding houses, rooming houses and the like ● Town Law Section 130 - Establish an STR registry. Require rental properties to register. ● Adopt local laws to address this. Using authority of 130/136 (not an ordinance - use local law) ● Using police power to get at owner occupancy to promote the health, safety, & welfare of residents. ● NOTE: There are several slides on Case Law that we didn’t go over in detail. (See the presentation slides and/or article for summaries.) Page 3 of 6 ● Questions: ○ Permit Fees? Should we use a service to help us monitor? That can be worked into the permit fee, as well as code enforcement costs. ○ Inspections - some detail on how these should be worded and done ■ Depends on whether we allow commercial STRs for the degree of inspection ■ Some Towns have allowed a certificate of inspection from a licensed engineer or the municipality inspects the premises ● Withstanding scrutiny: ○ Definitions ○ Indicate in enabling legislation that permits are a privilege not a right and can be revoked for failing to comply. ○ Local Law ○ Durational requirements - Length of time, number of times in a period ○ Recommends not to impose a residency requirement because it hasn’t been addressed through case law. Best to use other owner-occupancy rules. ○ Don’t use “family” to regulate because that is an ambiguous term ○ Case Law on definitions provided (and a summary of the case law is included in her article for NY Zoning Law). Discussion with the committee and Katie ➢ Special Permit with random inspections - what are the challenges to that approach? ○ Answer. Would have to be a commercial use (designated that way in the code). How is it being assessed? Inspections get into a 4th amendment issue, when residential in nature. ➢ Can you require an owner registration with a specific person to get through the LLC problem of anonymity? ○ Answer: Litigation - could be challenged under Special Use because it regulates the owner. So would have to regulate the other way through 130/136. But you could at least get a specific contact person as a condition of the permit. Owner/Agent. ➢ Can the Town set a cap of permits per each hamlet based upon our infrastructure and populations? Examples? ○ Answer: Yes, as long as it is rational. Housing Plan, Infrastructure, housing stock. ➢ Violations - how do places handle those? Fees? Page 4 of 6 ○ Answer: Depends on the penal code, what the infraction is. Specify that after a certain number of violations, the permit is lost. So, a high fine wouldn’t deter, but losing the permit would be. ○ There is enabling legislation that guides the fee structure for violations. ➢ Can you limit the number that any one company can own. How many LLC’s can an individual be part of? ○ Answer, we can do that. ➢ Yes, we can require that they display the permit on the home and we can require that they display the permit on the listing platforms like Airbnb. ➢ Are you finding that other towns are regulating STRs? ○ Answer: some places yes, some, not. The shift is towards regulation in general. Some places have filed moratoria. ➢ Can you still do the owner-occupancy or primary residence? ○ Answer: Primary residence might be better than owner-occupied. Use STAR exemption to determine that. There was case law striking that from a place in VA because they found it violated interstate commerce clause. ○ Locality must demonstrate that a legitimate public purpose exists for which there is no reasonable non-discriminatory alternative. ➢ ADU”s talk about owner-occupied. Isn’t that the same? And how to stop them from being converted to short term rental? ○ Answer: ADU is less about commercial use. When is that a commercial use and who participates in the market. Presumption of operation is important - if your ADU appears on the Air BNB site, it is presumed you are violating your ADU terms. ➢ If you put a limitation on the number. Can you do a lottery for it? How best to decide who gets the permit? ○ Answer: no one has vested rights for this most likely, so there isn’t any inherent right to use the property in this manner. Since they are all illegal now, we don’t have any obligation to the ones existing. Could do a lottery, could do a first-come, first served. Better to do a basis on number per area. ➢ Can you limit the number of guests that can stay in a house on a particular night? ○ Answer: Yes, by utilizing Fire Code, number of cars/parking limitation, etc. ○ Avoid language such as family, unrelated, related individuals. Page 5 of 6 ➢ Can you charge someone more on property tax if they are legally having an Airbnb on their property? ○ Answer: Not now, you need special legislation from the State to do this. Some local governments are going this route. Or trying to. Suffolk County can collect it as sales tax but they don’t share that with municipalities. ➢ County Planning Commission for approval? ○ Answer: If you adopt a regulation that is planning or zoning related, you refer it to SC Planning Commission. ➢ What if someone who has invested in Airbnb doesn’t end up being able to have a permit to make it legal. Will they be able to sue us? ○ Answer: The owners don’t have standing to sue us. Case law supports this. They are not entitled to the most productive use of their property since they can sell it or rent it out year-round. ➢ Have any towns imposed impact fees to the companies that run these uses to recoup money for providing infrastructure like fire, police, etc. ○ Answer: no case law on that yet. Interesting idea to address. General Meeting Discussion • Notes for Minutes: Mara & Heather o Zoom for 4/2/24 recorded and saved on Laserfiche • Timing: o Next Meeting. One more in April, then once in May, once in June o Provide recommendation to Town Board in July o Expectation is to review and respond to materials between meetings. • Education of the public - that will be important to address o Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) might be able to help with this • Involve Greenport Village o Communicate what we are doing o Consider how to coordinate in our approaches if possible • Shelter Island has their rental rules outlined on their website • Follow up from John Stype o Materials from Katie Hodgdon o Other items mentioned • Do we have a direction now so we can do some preparation and research? • Research what has been done in other areas? Page 6 of 6 • Arthur was on Shelter Island and helped create the enforcement regulations that were the topic of the Weisenberg case law. It was a complicated system. He summarized the case for us. Enforcement is a crucial element o HotPads app/website for rentals shows the address. ▪ Make STR regulations enforceable! • Didn’t get to the charge/mission. We will discuss this next time. • The County will likely share the data they have on STR through Granicus. • Planning will help set a date for the next meeting.