After a marathon public hearing almost two weeks ago on the short-term rental issue in Southold, it’s unlikely that any action will be taken at Tuesday’s board meeting, according to elected officials.
At the public hearing, those for and against sites such as airbnb.com weighed in, with a major source of contention being the requirement regarding the number of nights for short-term rentals. The draft legislation currently reads that such rentals can be no less than seven nights.
When asked by email this week what they believed next steps would be regarding the legislation, board members offered their thoughts regarding a potential timeline.
“I can’t speak for the rest of the board but I have to assume that they will want to resolve this issue quickly. I will say that the input I am getting from the public overwhelmingly supports a longer rental duration than the seven night requirement in the noticed code. However, any change would require a new hearing. That would likely delay any new law by well over 30 days,” Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said.
Councilman Bob Ghosio reminded that he’s said publicly that he believes the proliferation of short term rentals and the apps that make it possible to find even daily rentals of homes “has, in some cases, changed the feel of a traditional neighborhood. These short term rentals can change how secure a full time resident feels in their own neighborhood because of the constant turnover of the people around them. This is unsettling for many. The problem gets worse if the rental is used for parties every weekend.”
That said, however, Ghosio noted that the public hearing brought out a lot of opinions and discussion that has given him pause in making a decision on two fronts — the length of time to allow for short term rentals and how to enforce any codes currently on the books to help mitigate any issues.
“I want us to get this right,” Ghosio said. “I don’t believe the board will pass any code this coming week and believe we should have another code committee meeting to digest what we all heard at the hearing so that we can develop a good workable plan moving forward.”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty agreed. “I don’t think we will be ready to vote on this next week. We might take all the comments back to code committee and discuss it further. I personally feel we need to pass what we have proposed in conjunction with hiring more code enforcement. We can pass all the codes we want. If we don’t have the manpower to enforce them, what good are they?”
As for Councilman Jim Dinizio, he said he likes the law “just the way it is, because it doesn’t add any new restrictions. However, it will take a concentrated effort by the code enforcement officer and the town attorney’s office.” Dinizio also said the board has not met yet to discuss the public input.
Neither Justice Louisa Evans nor Councilman Bill Ruland replied immediately to a request for comment.
