Home News Southold Town Government Public packs Town Hall to sound off on short-term rentals

Public packs Town Hall to sound off on short-term rentals

A public hearing on the controversial short-term rental issue in Southold Town won’t be held until June 2 — but a fired-up public turned out in droves to speak out, anyway, at a packed town board meeting last night.

Yesterday, the board agreed that the draft legislation would reflect that short term rentals in Southold could be no less than seven nights; for weeks, the board and the public have debated over whether that number should be 14 nights or 30; no final decision will be made until the public has been heard, they said.

Residents filed up to the podium to speak passionately about an issue they say has the potential to shatter quality of life on the North Fork.

Anne Murray of East Marion said she was “disappointed” that the public hearing is not slated until June 2 and then, that the new legislation could be pushed out up to 60 days from that point. “I think people are really anxious about this summer,” she said. Some short-term rentals, she said, are advertising “venues”; she is fearful that a situation mirroring the Vineyard 48 complaints could arise.

She pleaded with the board to take swift action. “This is going to be a watershed moment on the North Fork.”

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the town board is aiming to be “deliberate and thoughtful” while also trying to recognize the history of the area. For many years, families on the North Fork have been renting out their homes weekly with no repercussions. “I understand this may be frustrating, but the end is in sight with the anticipated adoption of this law,” the supervisor said.

He added that the board had the power to put the new legislation into effect immediately after the vote, and said if residents embraced that idea they should say so at the public hearing.

In the meantime, the town has tools to address quality of life issues such as noise, he said. Also yesterday, Russell spoke to the board about hiring a part-time code enforcement officer that would work on nights and weekends to address such issues.

Russell added that the many residents with concerns who turned out should be sure to come back for the public hearing on June 2.

Debra O’Kane of Orient said she lives in a community with properties of half acres or less. Last summer, her neighbors rented out their home and to her knowledge, there was a different group every single week, hosting “late night backyard parties” with music and people “jumping the fence to retrieve balls and Frisbees at all house.” One night she was in her daughter’s bedroom when a group was laughing at 11 p.m. right outside the girl’s bedroom window. Guests parked on her front lawn, she said.

“Our summer  was pretty much ruined,” she said. She said a seven night threshold would not “ameliorate the situation we faced last year.” Instead, O’Kane said a restriction should be placed on how often a person could rent out their home, perhaps twice in six months; she’d also like to see a two-week minimum, an annual fee for code enforcement, and the requirement that those renting their homes pay the same hotel and occupancy taxes as hotel and B & Bs. “I don’t feel tax-paying residents should have to feel they are living next to a motel,” she said, adding that she believes property values could “take a hit” as a growing number of residents consider “how easy it is to make great money.”

Cutchogue attorney Abigail Field, who is representing a group of second homeowners want to rent out their homes and who screen applicants “aggressively”, said there are rules that can be enforced against “nuisance” homes.

Her clients are concerned that with a threshold of 14 or seven nights, property owners will “lose control of renting” their homes, with the chance that someone could say they are renting for two weeks and then sublet to others. The idea makes her clients feel “vulnerable”, she said. “The perception is that just because the internet is involved, people are trying to extract cash on the backs of their neighbors,” she said. “There may be a slice of that but you have to crack down and enforce codes.”

Field asked the board if they would consider a three-night rental in one seven-day period; the suggestion was met with boos from those in attendance.

“We encourage you to avoid stereotyping the people who do this as heartless and rude,” Field said.

Russell said the Internal Revenue Service maintains that anything less than seven nights “is a business”.

Other residents stood up to voice their concerns.

Scott Vayer of Greenport said he believes short-term rentals “have the potential to ravage our community”. He added that he believes short-term rentals are depleting the rental market for hardworking individuals who cannot afford buy a home and will leave without affordable rentals.

“It’s always harder to put the genie back in the bottle,” said one resident.

Salem Cash, who has been living for a year in Orient, asked for empirical data, or a study, to prove short term rentals are a problem. “Where’s the beef?”

Russell said the town board doesn’t legislate based on statistics; the board cannot vote only on majority will, he added, stating that all voices must be equally important.

Councilman Jim Dinizio said two and three day rentals are already outlawed under town code in residential areas. “There’s the beef,” he said.

Author Diane Ravitch said she moved to Southold in 1999 and now, a home was sold on her street that’s used for short term rentals every weekend, leaving her fearful for her safety and privacy.

Ravitch advocated for a minimum of a one-month rental, urging the board to protect “what’s most precious about Southold Town, our quality of life.”

Carolyn Greer said she’d like the board to look at the calendar and see how many days are blocked off for a residence, and if the owner was renting more days than they were living in a home, then it was a motel or business.

Councilman Bob Ghosio said he was happy to see people from his Greenport neighborhood turn out. “When you buy your home in a residential neighborhood you have a reasonable expectation to live with the idea of a reasonable residential experience.”

Others echoed security concerns as a revolving door of renters come through weekly in their communities.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is your golden moment,” said Mary Butz. “God forbid there are more DUIs, a rape, a murder. This may sound dramatic but some o the people that have been walking around and through our property — I was born and raised in Brooklyn and I wouldn’t want to meet them there.”

A public hearing will be scheduled for June 2 at 4:35 p.m.; the hearing will be noticed at tonight’s town board meeting.

The board has agreed to include a period of no less than seven nights in the proposed legislation, in regard to the length of short term rentals in Southold Town.

Discussion has been ongoing about whether to set the time frame as no less than 30 nights, 14 nights, or seven nights; no final decision will be made until the board has heard the public weigh in on the issue.

Councilman Jim Dinizio said the town code is clear that two-day short term rentals are not allowed currently.

Dinizio added that he would like the public to hear, from the outset, just what consequences those who violate the short term rental law will have to face.

Russell has said for years, the town has allowed for seven night short term rentals with no issues or complaints; the number would allow for local business owners to still reap economic benefits, he said. One concern he harbors, however, is that seven nights will still mean the potential for weekly turnover.

“My concern is that we are solving a problem without solving the problem,” Russell said.

Councilwoman Jill Doherty said the draft is still a proposal. “We have to start somewhere,” she said, adding that if the solution doesn’t work, new code can be created.

The changes, Doherty said, are just an expansion of the already existing code.

The board also needs to decide if, when adopted, the code will be adopted right away or with an effective date down the road, allowing for some currently existing reservations to be grandfathered in.

Russell suggested the effective date be 60 days from adoption, to allow for some summer reservations to go forward but with the legislation in place by the busy fall season on the North Fork.

The short-term rental issue has had residents riled up for months.

On the flipside, Chris Baiz said ordinances do exist for parking and noise mitigation. He said he did not want to see headlines reading, “Southold denies tourism”, something he does not think the area could afford, as it’s long been a tourist destination. His concern was taking 1,500 homes out of the summer rental stock and said if that happened, rezoning of land to allow for additional hotel rooms should be considered. Young families, he added, visit for shorter periods, such as a week.

At a March code committee meeting, Assistant Town Attorney Stephen Kiely discussed the draft of a new definition that could be added to the town’s zoning chapter.

Kiely said the issue has been discussed for approximately six to eight months, beginning with a year-round rental law, then scaled down to a short-term law that would require a permitting process and would allow for fines.

The third, and most recent manifestation, Kiely said, would just add a section on transient uses to the prohibited use section of the town’s zoning code.

The added text would define the meaning of a transient rental property as “a dwelling unit which is occupied for habitation as a residence by person, other than the owner or a family member of the owner, and for which rent is received by the owner, directly or indirectly, in exchange for such residential occupation for a period of an as-yet-to be determined number of nights.”

Under the new definition, transient rentals would have to be a dwelling unit lawfully and validly permitted as an accessory apartment in Southold; properties used exclusively for non-residential commercial purposes in any zoning district; any legally operating commercial hotel/motel business or B & B operating exclusively and catering to transient clientele; or a dwelling unit located on Fisher’s Island, due to the unique characteristics of the island and the lack of formal lodging for guests.

Keily said “presumptions” can be used to determine if a dwelling unit is being used as a transient rental.

Those presumptions include whether the unit is offered on a short-term rental website, such as airbnb.com, Home Away, and VRBO.

The presumptions, Keily said, are rebuttable with evidence that the unit is not used for transient rentals.

First, Kiely said, the town has to “make a baseline determination” of what type of short-term rental it will permit, as well as choose the minimum number of nights, or the time period, a potential guest can stay legally.

No matter what regulations are adopted, the board agreed enforcement is critical. Currently, the town has only one code enforcement officer, but at yesterday’s work session, the board discussed hiring a second code enforcement officer part-time, to also work on nights and weekends.

In Southampton, Kiely said, the town has code enforcement under the helm of the town attorney — a move the Southold Town board is weighing — and fines collected help to finance the enhanced code enforcement efforts.

 

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