A public hearing on an issue that has the public sharply divided will take place at Southold Town Hall today, as both sides weigh in on the short-term rental debate and give their thoughts on new draft legislation that aims to offer some direction and guidelines.
The draft says short-term rentals can be no less than seven nights.
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 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.
At a March code committee meeting, Assistant Town Attorney Stephen Kiely discussed the draft of the 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, 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.
Cutchogue attorney Abigail Field said private homeowners supported the idea of fines as a revenue stream that could upgrade the town’s code enforcement effort. Field said if weekend short-term rentals were banned, the economy would suffer, as, according to her informal survey, most short-term renters come for weekends.
If served a notice of violation, the homeowner would have five to 10 days to fix the situation, Kiely said. “If the behavior doesn’t change, the homeowner would be issued an appearance ticket” but the individual could still “lawyer up” and the case could be tied up for months with adjournments. The “quickest and fastest way is to go to the Supreme Court and get an injunction to shut the house down,” he said. “Presumptions give you the gateway into the court quicker,” rather than having to send a code enforcement officer to sit outside a house at night and on weekends, he said.
The presumption, Kiely said, would be that any home listed on airbnb or other short-term site for less than the number of days allowed by the town would be in violation, allowing a code enforcer to pinpoint the offenders easily.
No matter what number of days the board and public decide upon, “If we can’t enforce it, there’s no reason to have it,” Dinizio said.
Russell added that in most instances, the public was not calling because of “rogue” homes with loud music or bad behavior but instead, it’s the “unsettled feeling of turnover” residents experience due the constantly changing faces and cars in homes nearby.
