A vote on short-term rental regulations in Saratoga Springs has been delayed again after months of debate.
Leaders in the Spa City have been attempting to rein in the expanding short-term rental market for more than a year. Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran opened the public hearing held ahead of Tuesday’s city council meeting by saying the approval of any regulations would be pushed to at least the second meeting in December.
“We will not be taking a vote on this bill this evening. I received a call from Assemblymember [Carrie] Woerner and we are meeting tomorrow. It is my understanding that the law will be signed by the governor, and it will incorporate some changes. So, what we’re going to do, is we’re going to make sure whatever we bring forward is in harmony with what the state is bringing forward. And as such, we are not going to pass a law ahead of that advisement from Assemblymember Woerner,” said Moran.
State legislators have approved statewide regulations that would require property owners and platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to register with the state. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has yet to act on the legislation.
Initial drafts of the regulations would require rental properties to be “owner-occupied,” rented for no more than 185 days a year, and have an emergency contact within 25 miles of each property.
Moran, a Democrat, presented a draft in November that removed the “owner-occupied” requirement and lowered the rentable days to 150.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, Moran said more adjustments had been made after hearing from the public.
“We changed the radius for the emergency contact from 25 to 50 miles. We, in the case of fines, we defined that as ‘up to’ a specific fine amount to give more discretion because here’s the thing: there’s a variety of different things that can happen. I hear often that every host is the best host, yet they all seem very upset about the fines. If they’re the best host they don’t have to worry about the fines, is my feeling. And if you have to worry about the fines, you’re not the best host and we don’t want you negatively impacting our neighborhoods,” said Moran.
Moran’s proposed legislation would require residents looking to rent their primary and non-primary residences to get a license for each property they want to rent with a maximum of two per person.
It also establishes a 24/7 hotline for neighbors to call in noise and occupancy violations. The first violation comes with a penalty up to $2,500, and a license can be revoked if a property receives three violations in two years.
Moran says this initial local legislation is intended to begin tracking the city’s short-term rentals and is designed to pay for itself.
“You can’t hope to fix a situation you can’t measure. And we have macro-measurements on the amount but we don’t know the constitution of that macro. So, if there’s 1,400 units, and I’ve said this before, if 1,000 of them are primary residences we don’t have a problem with short-term rentals in Saratoga Springs. If 1,000 of them are second permits for people who don’t live here, I would suggest we really need to apply some more thought to how we want to approach short-term rentals in our city,” said Moran.
Republican Mayor John Safford says he’s happy the turnout for the public hearings has been so large.
“These last public hearings are hearings that we all were here for. Many of the ones that were done originally were just Commissioner Moran. And so now we’re all feeding and being engaged in making adjustments to this and I think it’s reflected in some of the comments tonight that people are appreciative that things are moving a little bit towards what some of the suggestions are made,” said Safford.
A spokesperson for Airbnb previously said the company is looking forward to “working with the City of Saratoga Springs and our host community on sensible rules that address community concerns and protect the benefits of home sharing for residents and the local economy.”
Moran says he’s hopeful a final draft of the city’s regulations will be voted on at the December 17th meeting.